


Decoding Dr. Pines

by BubuBORG



Series: Team Medi: Gravity and Time [4]
Category: Angel: the Series, Gravity Falls, Multi-Fandom, SilverHawks, Star Trek, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, M/M, Mirror Universe, Multiple Crossovers, Original Character(s), Star Trek Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-08-23 07:08:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8318599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubuBORG/pseuds/BubuBORG
Summary: Commander Buffi K'gar has a mission to bring Vice-Proconsul M'ret into safe Federation territory.  However, she didn't count on two old Khazad dwarves who're Up To Something...and a curious stranger.





	1. Stranger

_First Officer’s Log, Stardate 46528.1.  Taking Runabout_ Tuscarawas _to Limbo to engage in covert mission.  This time, it’s just me and the little brother._

 

Buffi remembered the first time she went to Limbo.  It was in a much clunkier vehicle than the state-of-the-art runabout she was in now, but it gave her the time to feel out the folks that the canine-looking alien would have been be working with for the next year.  

It wouldn’t take nearly that long this time, and the young man she was traveling with, had grown up before she could even get a chance to gauge the differences.  She hoped she’d get to know the young man her baby brother had become.  

“Ahh,” She sighed.  “The way this thing handles.”

“What’s that?”  Bruffi’s voice wafted from the back cabin.  

“Just commenting on the ride,” Buffi called back.  Bruffi walked into the cockpit.  He’d taken off his uniform jacket, with his gray undershirt on.  “Tiny little sonic shower, though,” he’d commented. 

Buffi noticed how long his hair had gotten.  Cainians tended to grow their hair out, when they could.  Starfleet grooming regs tended to put a damper on that for those Cainians who served.  Bruffi tied his back.

“So why’d you pick me on this,” Bruffi asked.  “Why not Leo or Merry or my new brother-in-law?”  

“It was Gandalf who selected us,” Buffi explained.  “And I agreed to the mission parameters.  You’ve become a well-rounded officer.”

“Oh.”  Bruffi sat down in the co-pilot seat.  

“Our current ETA is fifteen more hours,” Buffi told him.  “Did you go over the intelligence report?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Bruffi replied.  “Romulan defector requires protection, and escort into secure Federation space.”

“According to this, its…”  Buffi’s eyes widened.  “By the Three, it’s Vice-Proconsul M’ret!”

“Someone that high-profile is defecting?” Bruffi exclaimed.  “How are we getting him out of Limbo?”

“He’s in a stasis pod,” Buffi explained.  “We’re taking him onto the _Tusc_ as cargo.”

Bruffi frowned.  “I don’t like this.  This mission’s got a Romulan element, and whenever there’s a Romulan element and you…”

Buffi glanced at her brother.  “Yes?”

“Commander Sela and you seem to be locked into this dance of death every time you interact,” Bruffi said, not quite meeting his sister’s gaze.  “You’re like matter and antimatter.”

Buffi shrugged.  “We’re in the same business.  We’re competitors.  It shouldn’t be personal.”

“But it seems to be,” Bruffi prodded.  “She didn’t go all in on your Kakarii kumbaya and now you’re, like, mortal enemies.”

Buffi checked a signal on a side console, while side-eying Bruffi. “I think you’re over-simplifying our relationship.  The fact of the matter is,” She said, sliding her cockpit seat over, “We were this close to being friends until we realized were were on opposite sides of the Neutral Zone.”

Bruffi’s canine snout frowned, his dark lower lip pouting. “Doesn’t that make it worse?”

“You had a point, Ensign,” Buffi sighed, pulling rank.

“My point was that taking out the Vice-Proconsul is right up her alley.  We should anticipate her involvement.”

“Well, I’m hoping that our contact in Limbo will facilitate that,” Buffi said with a smile.  

Bruffi’s face lit up and whipped around to face Buffi.  “ _Lorne_?!”

Buffi beamed.  “What’s a covert mission without a little karaoke?”

 

 

 

It was roughly eight or so years ago that the current Hawk Haven station emerged like a phoenix from a cosmic egg from the planetoid known as Automata.  Using Numenorean technology that its operators barely understood sometimes, it was capable of warp flight, defying all known conventions of engineering.  

The mobile space station built a bridge between Bed-Lama and Arda, based on the joint need to understand the exotic technology from that ancient civilization.  It generated a need for engineers from both planets to come together and learn all they could.  

And Commander Kíli was no different.  

Arriving to the Haven from Antares ahead of schedule, he wandered the commercial area of the station, Designated Birdsmouth, which was located in the front area of the avian-shaped structure.  Kiosks, shops and dining areas were strewn throughout the open area.  above, a wide domed area held a clear view of the stars and, in turn, the limb of the planet the Haven orbited.  The operations center was also open and visible above the bazaar.  

Kíli exhaled.  Where to begin?  Cuisine or snack?  Shopping?  Souvenirs?  He thought back to Fíli and their tentative plans for reuniting in the future.  Perhaps a gift…

It was at that moment that he heard a familiar voice in the crowd, crowing more than speaking.  

“Ah, but see, what most folks don’t understand, is that a Klingon won’t strike you down if you’re unarmed.  Goes against their code of honor.  So I threw my mattock aside, and told him, ‘If you’re half the Dahar Master you say you are, then go ahead and cleave me in two!’ and that was the end of it.”

That was followed by some gasps, laughter, and more than a few scoffs.  Kíli rolled his eyes.

“Mahal’s hammer,” he muttered, as he realized that he was going to have to walk over and greet this voice.

“Of course, that led to me nearly getting alcohol poisoning from all the bloodwine we drank—“ the voice trailed off.  Kíli saw the speaker.  He had a rogue’s look on his face, with not much of a beard to speak of, but a whopper of a moustache, which had now gone pure white.  His ridiculously large hat was in his hands, and his silver hair was tied back and braided.  

It was Bofur, all right.

Bofur, for his part, beamed when he saw Kíli in the crowd.  His dark hair had strands of gray at the temple, and, while his chin was bare, his mutton-chops had grown down to his neck.  There was even more bare forehead visible since the reunion seven years ago.  Married life, no doubt, had taken its toll.

“My little prince,” Bofur exclaimed, and hopped off of the table he was holding court with.  He pulled Kíli into an embrace, which was half-heartedly returned.  

“I beg your pardon?” Kíli asked.  

Bofur’s expressive eyebrows arched.  “My little…engineer?”

Kíli sighed and chuckled.  “What are you doing here?”  

The two began to stroll through Birdsmouth together.  Bofur explained.  “I’m trying to get mining rights secured from the Bed-Lama government.”

“From the dregs of Automata?” Kíli exclaimed.  

“No, no, there’s nothing of use there,” Bofur scoffed.  “The Company’s done some surveys in their Oort cloud and the prospects are very promising.  There might even be dilithium to be found out there.”

“In exchange for what?” Kíli asked.  

Bofur gestured all around them.  “Greater leverage in studying this technology, for one,” he explained.  “The New Gondolin Station is being built over Arda as we speak, and new innovations are being implemented almost daily.”

Kíli stroked his chin.  The New Gondolin was almost an attractive enough prospect to leave Antares over.  Almost.  “Who else is on this project?  I can’t believe the Company sent you alone.”

“They didn’t.  You know Dwalin.  Nori’s somewhere around here.”

If Kíli seemed distant before, he certainly did at that moment.  Bofur frowned.  “What brings you here?”

“Starfleet mission,” Kíli explained.  “Commander K’gar’s due to dock within the day.”

“That’s right,” Bofur said.  “It was here that you and Fíli joined forces that that trinity of Starfleet officers.”  The two had found a cafe and sat down.  “They still tell the story of how your Commander K’gar took on those warg-men back home.”

Kíli should have scoffed, but was quiet.  

Bofur leaned in and eyed Kíli.  “You are far too quiet.  What is wrong with you?”

Kíli held out his hands.  “Before I set out from Antares, I’d spoken with my brother.”

“How is Fíli?” Bofur asked.  “My protege in hedonism.”

“He’d told me that he’d looked through—how do I put this—He’d been moved to read Ori’s journals.”

Bofur deflated, almost visibly.  even his hat seemed to droop somewhat.  “Oh.”

“He has the music we recorded from the reunion piped through his waiting room, can you believe it?”

“That can’t improve the mood of his patients,” Bofur remarked.

“So…yeah.” Kíli said at last.  

“I could use a drink,” Bofur said.

“ _No_ you don’t,” Kíli automatically replied. 

“Well if I have another raktajino I’m going to start bouncing all over Birdsmouth,” Bofur replied.  “Does this place have any holosuites?”

“Don’t you have any hobbies that don’t indulge your vices?” Kíli moaned.  

“When did you become such an old fart?” Bofur asked, his eyes twinkling.  “You were much more flexible in your youth.”

Kíli moved toward Bofur and hissed in his ear, “When you’re killed and brought back, you take your life a lot more seriously.”

“Kíli!” a youthful voice called from the distance.

Kíli brightened immediately.  “Is that my former cadet?” he called.

Buffi and Bruffi crossed the distance rather quickly to meet Kíli and Bofur.  Kíli turned from Bofur to place his hands on the young Cainan’s arms.  “Made Ensign in short order, did you?” He said to Bruffi.  “Are you running that engine room for that silly gardener?”

“Well, actually…” Bruffi started.

“He’s still doing helm duty,” Buffi piped up.  “And the occasional delta shift ops on the bridge.”

“Hope springs eternal,” Kíli said.  “Commander, you’re looking well.  How was the honeymoon?”

“It’s still ongoing,” Buffi said with a mischievous grin.  “Don’t tell the Captain.  Who’s your friend?”

“Bofur,” Bofur snaked an arm toward Buffi.  “Another member of the Company.  I’m sure the little princes have told you all about us.”

“They haven’t, but a certain hobbit has,” Buffi said, taking Bofur’s hand, and ignoring Kíli’s scowl.  “Commander Buffi K’gar, at your service.”

“And I at yours and your…immediate family’s?” Bofur replied, glancing toward Bruffi.

“Yeah, she’s my sister,” Bruffi sighed.

 

“So did I hear something about a holosuite?” Buffi asked, as they walked toward the Birdsmouth exit area. 

 

As they left, a figure nearby, their features obscured, left their table and followed.

 

The _Tuscarawas_ had the benefit of being looked over by one of its designers.  Kíli went from console to console, tweaking everything.  “Default specs ensure that all of the production models perform uniformly,” Kíli explained.  “But most of us designers can soup up the engines to at least 114% of spec.”

“Nice,” Bofur drawled.  “We got us a hot rod.”

“Can this thing race?” Bofur’s partner Nori asked.  His beard was graying out, and the braids in his hair were capped with silver ends.  

“I agreed to bring them…why?” Buffi asked Kíli.  

“It’s fine,” Kíli sighed.  “They were going to Caritas as well so I figured we’d drop them off.”

“We love coming to Limbo,” Nori said.  

“We’re hitting the Starship Casino next,” Bofur told him.  

“Did Kíli tell you about the time we had an undercover mission to the Casino?” Buffi asked them.

The two of them turned toward Kíli, who promptly started turning pink.  “Do tell, young sir,” Bofur said.

“Fíli and I posed as high rollers with Buffi,” Kíli explained.  “We were trying to flush out a pickpocket who was on the make with the Mob.”

“With matching suits and bolo ties,” Buffi added.  “I’ll have to ask Joy sometime if she still has those holo-images of them.”

“Looking forward to playing a few rounds of Dabo,” Bofur told Nori.  “I’ve got a system, you know.”

Nori frowned for a moment and then brightened.  “Quick-pick!” he exclaimed.  “It was Quick-pick you nabbed!  He was so mad—“

Buffi turned to Nori.  “ _How_ exactly do you know him?” 

Nori scratched the back of his head. Bofur started to whistle.

“You know,” Buffi began, getting out of her chair.  “I’ve read ‘There and Back Again’ numerous times.  I’ve spent lots of time with Bilbo Baggins.  But it’s never quite the same to meet folks who inspire the page.”

Nori and Bofur began to relax at that, just before Buffi leaned down at them, a green glint in her eyes.

“Whatever you two have planned had just better not interfere with my mission,” She said, in a low, dangerous voice.  “Or you’ll find that whatever Kíli’s ever said about me was a sweet understatement.”

Nori gulped.

“Just so we have an understanding?” Buffi finished, and smiled sweetly.

“Y-yes, ma’am,” Nori said.  

“Of course,” Bofur added.

“Now hold on a tick,” Kíli said.  “I do believe these two might be able to help us.”

 

***

 

Caritas was a sanctuary.

 

Among other things.

 

The club was in full swing, as a band was playing that night.  No karaoke planned.  Buffi scowled as they entered. The place was packed with jazz enthusiasts.  They probably came from at least ten sectors away, Buffi thought.  As always, the atmosphere was dim, with electric blue highlights.  

Bofur and Nori were held up, continuing to give up little weapons on their person.  Buffi was impressed at the amount of throwing knives that Kíli himself had on him.  It was like he was a little Klingon.  

“Best-in-Show!” the velvet voice of the Host of Caritas wafted over to her. Still green, still suave, still fabulous. “It has been a Cainian’s age.”

“Lorne!” Buffi squealed and hugged him.  “Miss you always.”

“If you’re begging me to come back and run your ship’s lounge, gotta say, nuh-uh,” Lorne replied.  

“Nah,” Buffi said.  “The skinny magician and his wife run the place just fine, thanks.”

“And who’s your crew this time?”

By this point, Buffi and her brother were in civilian garb.  “Well, you remember Bruffi,” she indicated the younger Cainian.  “And Commander Kíli.”

“Your brother still owes me those Elton John glasses,” Lorne told Kíli.  “I won those fair and square.”

Kíli held up his hands.  “That’s none to do with me.  As for these two…”

“Oh.” Lorne looked at Bofur and Nori.  “ _Those_ two chuckleheads.”

“Oi!” Bofur bellowed, and took Nori to a booth.

“So have you received any interesting deliveries?” Buffi asked, nonchalantly.  

“I suggest you enjoy the show tonight,” Lorne told her.  

“They didn’t tell me it was band night,” she whined.  

“Jazz standards aren’t exactly in your wheelhouse,” Lorne said.  

“True,” Buffi admitted.  

“So sit down. Be the audience for once,” Lorne told her.  “And deliveries are on Thursday nights.”

So the three of them picked a nice round booth beside the stage and Lorne had drinks sent to them.  Kíli looked to have something dry and austere while Buffi had something with an umbrella in it.  Bruffi…

“ _Root beer_?!” Bruffi exclaimed, bristling. Buffi did her best to stifle a laugh.

“When Kat and I were at the Academy, we closed down bars!” Bruffi protested.  “We’d pull all nighters at the Quantum Cafe when the officers didn’t even notice the two cadets in the corner downing ale after ale and this guy gives me Root Beer?!”

“There’s an old tradition,” a smooth voice said from the booth beside them, “Of groups of folks who are out to have a good time, of one who abstains to get them all home safely.  The tradition of having a designated—“

“Designated driver,” Bruffi sighed.  

“Guess Lorne designated _you_ ,” Buffi said.  “Hey, sir—?”

“Don’t mind me,” the voice said as a head popped from around the corner.  A halo surrounded his head as the light backlit his particularly fluffed up, brown hair.  He wore an anachronistic pair of spectacles, and Buffi noticed that one of the lenses was cracked.  He wore a maroon outfit, with a tan jacket.  A memory popped into her head, not quite hers.  Giles.  He reminded her of Giles. 

“That is to say, I’m just here to enjoy the jazz,” he told them. 

“It’s a nice change from the cacophony that my colleagues _tend_ to listen to,” Kíli said pointedly.  “Who knew?”

Buffi gave the man a glance.  He seemed friendly enough.  And she had time to kill until the Proconsul was delivered.  “Do you want to join us?” 

“I’d hate to impose,” he told her.  

“Too late,” She said cheerfully.  “You got a name?”

“Stanford,” he said, and extended his arm. “Greetings.” Buffi noticed right away.  

“Charmed to meet you,” she said as she shook his hand. “And your extra finger.”

“Yes, well,” Stanford chuckled.  

“I’m Buffi, and this is my brother Bruffi,” she indicated the younger Cainian.  “And this is our colleague Kíli.”

Bruffi let Stanford in the booth, and he sat between him and Kíli.  “You are Cainians, correct?” he asked Buffi.

Buffi nodded.

“Fascinating,” he murmured as he whipped out a PADD and made some notes.

“Well, I’d like to think so,” Buffi said, with a slight smile, putting a hand to her chest.  

By this point, the jazz band finished the first half of their set, beginning an intermission period.  A server came over, offering to refresh their drinks.  Bruffi resigned himself to another root beer.  

Interestingly, it was Kíli and the interloper who hit it off first.  “The problem, of course, that we had mounting a defense against the Borg is that we had such blessed little intelligence.  We were extrapolating from maybe a day or two of sensor data recorded from the _Enterprise_.  One away mission inside the ship, and until the _Raven_ logs emerged, that was it.”

“ _Raven_ logs?” Stanford inquired.

“It was a civilian ship, headed by two human scientists.  They uncovered declassified details on a prior engagement with the Borg in the 22nd Century, and decided to make the Collective’s study their life’s work,” Kíli explained, and added,  “We never heard from them alive again.”

Stanford’s brows furrowed.  “I see.”

“And what’s worse, was, they were a married couple,” Kíli said.  “They took their young daughter with them to their death.  In the name of _science_ ,” Kíli finished, gesturing wildly with his arms.  Stanford frowned at him.

“How do you know for certain that they were killed?” Stanford asked Kíli.

Kíli glared at him.  “It’s. The. Borg.” he said, emphasizing each word.  “And the worst part is, the data that came in from their observations and studies, were useful.  Do you know how filthy that made me feel as an engineer?”

Ford looked wide eyed.  He shrugged.  

“Now, Ms. K’gar—Mrs.? Buffi?” Kíli gestured toward her.

“Ms. K’gar for now,” Buffi affirmed. “We’re still working out the hyphenation.”

“She can attest that I have literal blood on my hands…in my previous life.”

Bruffi put a hand on Kíli’s shoulder.  “Hey, chief…you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want.”

The shadow on Kíli’s features broke; he patted Bruffi’s arm, and chuckled.  “Bless you, lad.”

“I’m sorry,” Stanford offered.  “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Kíli put his arms up.  “To talk to new acquaintances about my past is problematic at best.  These two know how riled up I can get.”  With that, he excused himself.  “I’m going to sleep this off on the runabout,” he told them.  “Good night.”

By this time, the jazz band was packing up.  Nori and Bofur were still going strong, and popped over to them.  Bofur sighed.  

“My poor little prince,” he said, forlorn, watching Kíli go.  “Nori and I wanted to thank you again for dropping us off; we’re heading to our lodgings now.”  He gave a pointed look to Stanford.

“Yes, yes, I feel I’ve imposed upon you fine folks enough for one evening,” Stanford told the Cainians.  He exited the booth quickly.  “I hope we get a chance to meet again before you leave Limbo.”  And with that, he was gone.  

And so was Bofur and Nori.

Leaving Buffi and her brother alone.  Mostly.

Lorne wandered over to their table.  “Interesting exchange,” He said.  

“Yes,” Buffi agreed wearily.  “It’s too bad nobody was singing, huh?”

“What, and do all your work for you?” Lorne said with a smile.  

“Stranger wants to sit in on us, and he leaves at exactly the same time as Tweedle-dee and tweedle-up-to-something?,” Bruffi said.  

“Or maybe we’re tired and paranoid from dealing with all the wierdness of the last twelve months,” Buffi sighed.  “And a random nerdy guy is just a random nerdy guy.”

Bruffi shrugged.  “I dunno.  Something about him.”  

 

***

 

On the other side of the planetoid, Nori and Bofur stumbled into their room.  Still buzzed from their revels at Caritas, they proceeded to launch themselves onto the bed.  They exchanged a glance and began to smile mischievously, as if they’d gotten away with something; mostly because they did.

 

“Did you take the long way like I asked you?” a smooth voice asked from the window.  

Bofur cocked his head up to find the voice.  “Well, _you_ sure did.  How’d you get in here?” 

Nori looked up toward the balcony to see the figure come in.

“You’d be surprised how versatile a magnetic grappling gun can be,” Stanford told them.  “And the matching boots as well.  Are you ready to get to work?”

“I’m dead knackered!” Bofur protested.  

“That’s fine.  I’ll do all the research and you can answer all my questions,” Stanford replied, setting up a workstation. “Especially concerning everything you know about Commander Buffi K’gar.”


	2. Danger Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Commander K'gar works to cut down on the variables on her mission. It goes as well as can be expected.

_First Officer’s Log, supplemental: As we track the progress of the Vice-Proconsul, we change our venue from Fence back to the Haven._

 

Above Birdsmouth, overlooking all the activity, was the Eyrie.  Not unlike the old Haven’s control center, it was manned by at least three officers at all times.  Off to the side was Captain Stargazer’s office, which he obstinately reconfigured to look almost exactly like his old office on the old station.  

“The Enterprise revived M’ret and his two aides in the Kaleb sector,” Buffi K’gar told him.  “Passage was arranged to Limbo, where he’ll make his way to the secure interior of Federation space.”

“So he’d submitted to being put back into stasis for the ride?” Stargazer said, raising the eyebrow over his artificial eye.  

“By basically traveling as luggage, his biosigns can be masked by conventional means,” Buffi explained.  “It also provides an added layer of protection; If he’s staying put, I can keep him safer.”

Stargazer nodded.  “The old geezer put a lot of trust into your abilities, that’s for sure,” he told her.  “I don’t have the specifics of what went down on Celtris III…”

“With all due respect, sir…” Buffi began

“It’s not relevant to your current mission,” Stargazer said, waving it off.  “It’s been a hell of a year to attempt to start your boss’s Initative.”

“Tell me about it,” Buffi grumbled.  

“It’s something that me and the Reids fully believe in,” Stargazer emphasized.  “In fact, everything that did go down on Celtris III and Minos Korva probably strengthened their case.”

“All the more reason for this mission to go smoothly,” Buffi said.  “I’m hoping you can help me cut down on the variables.”

Stargazer looked at her with curiosity.  “What do you have in mind?”

 

 

 

Ford looked at the footage on the PADD.  On it, an athletic, vivacious Cainian woman performed on stage with four reptilian bipeds.  Singing about making mistakes and trying again.  It was catchy enough.  A number of years ago, she’d toured around the Federation, performing cover songs and getting involved in local intrigues, especially on Dimorus.  Not long after that, she’d uncovered a resurgence of the ninja Foot Clan on renegade colony Turkana IV.  

For a Starfleet Officer, she seemed to have a high profile.

“She’s nobility,” Ford murmured.

“Aye,” the Khazad dwarf known as Bofur agreed.  “Her father is the _Ablador_ of the house of K’gar, and that makes her _diablador_ , a family member.  There’s no other distinctions of titles, though.”

“Father Hy’uffi an archeologist by trade,” Ford continued, “And mother Dunei a diplomat-slash-lawmaker in the Federation Council.”  

“Her Uncle Rutti is a Carr-tagh-Kai master,” Nori added.  “He teaches students in the mountains near the House K’gar.

“I haven’t been to Cain,” Ford said.  “Not yet at least.  I’d considered going to prove a theory concerning the Cainian populace and werewolves…”

“Debunked,” sighed Bofur.

“Eh?  What?”  Ford perked up.  “By _who_?”

“Captain Reid,” the Dwarf replied, lazily.  “Turns out there was an actual werewolf attack a few years back and he and his crew isolated…”

“That’s _not_ in his ship’s logs!” Ford thundered.  “This is why you have to document _everything_!”

“Legacy database,” Nori added, practically snoring.

Ford sat there, silent and annoyed.  “The good Captain is grating on my nerves already,” he grumbled.   “And why are you two still sleepy?”

“Rocket Lag,” Bofur yawned.  

“Thought they found a cure for that,” Ford muttered.  “I’ll suppose I’ll let the two of you rest up so we can stay on schedule.  By all accounts Dolare is difficult to break into.”

“Only if you’re not the best,” Nori sighed.  “Compared to some literal strongholds I’ve had the pleasure of breaching, it’s practically child’s play.”

“There’s only one safecracker I truly trust,” Ford said, and he frowned and turned away from them.  “Unfortunately, he’s…out of the business.”

Ford’s materials were gathered, and he headed for the room door.  “My room is nearby,” he told the two Dwarves.  “Let’s reconvene at 15:30.”

Bofur sleepily threw a salute at Ford as the door closed.  

Nori opened a mischievous eye.  A smile crept along his features as he rolled over toward Bofur, his leg lifting up and over the other Dwarrow’s body and straddling him.  He looked down, their noses touching.  

“Thought Dr. Science would never leave,” Bofur said, sounding much less sleepy than before.  With that, the silver haired Dwarves kissed, and from there very little thoughts of sleep remained.

 

***

 

 

The heavy doors opened up, and the three Starfleet officers entered.

“Knock Knock?” Buffi called into the warehouse.  It echoed out into the darkness.  

“Ruka!” She called out again. The lights were dimmed, but as far as Buffi, Bruffi and Kíli could see were two-story shelves with shadowy objects and crates.  The end of the warehouse was lit but at that distance, it didn’t do the three very much good.

 

“Maybe he went out for lunch,” Bruffi muttered.  

“No,” Kíli said.  “He’s here.  “He’s probably down some rabbit hole or something.”

“Wish there was a light switch, all the same,” Bruffi said.  “This is creepy.”

Buffi nodded.  This was the warehouse where Ruka Vinata kept the remnants of his criminal career as Hardware.  His creations were individual strokes of genius, but as a whole they were the legacy of a certain kind of madness, one that went far beyond one criminal tinkerer.  But those days were over, the madness had been banished, and Ruka henceforth had taken it upon himself to keep those items away from the universe, as penance.

…While still tinkering, of course.

“OI!” Kíli shouted.  “RUKA!”

“Over here!  follow my voice!” a distant voice replied.  

“See?” Kíli said to Bruffi.

 

 

“What is it?” Bruffi was the first to ask, as they circled the pieces.  Metallic, slightly bluish in color, with some pieces curved and others angular, 

“It got sent to me,” Ruka said with a shrug.  “I’ve been trying to analyze the parts for weeks now.”

“Wait,” Buffi said.  “Not all of this is yours?”

“ _Most_ of it is, Commander,” Ruka asserted.  “But, you see, when it comes to technology that nobody wants to have ‘round, I’ve gotten me a bit of a reputation.”

Kíli put a hand on his friend’s shoulder.  “It’s a good thing we trust you.”

Ruka glanced at Kíli with endearment.  “Heh-heh, thanks,” he said.  “But it’s been making me concerned about security.  This isn’t exactly Dolare.”

“So back to the original question,” Bruffi said again.  “What is it?”

“I’ve had to go through Hardware’s inventory,” Ruka said, speaking of his former self in the third person.  “It reminds me of some things that I’d made under the influence.  But lots of that was aping the technology of the Numenoreans.”

“Is this Numenorean?” Buffi asked.

“No,” Ruka said with certainty.  “The symbols on the outside indicate something…I don’t know.”

Kíli took the PADD from Ruka.  “The power conduit needed to run this had to have been vast.  As you know, the old Numenorean structures was powered by Arda’s own magnetic field.  This would have to be…gravitic in nature.”

“A device that relies on some kind of gravity well to produce vast amounts of power,” Buffi summed up.  “Romulan vessels harness the power of artificial singularities.”

Bruffi turned to his sister and glared.  “See?”

“At ease, Ensign,” she sighed.  “It doesn’t mean anything.  Not yet.”

“The alloys in this device aren’t remotely Romulan,” Ruka affirmed.  “No…If I didn’t know better, I’d say this thing was made in another universe entirely!”

Kíli circled around the parts again, tricorder in hand.  “It’s got a fluctuating quantum signature,” he told them.  “Now all matter resonates uniformly on a quantum level.  No exceptions.  It’s as if this were made from both sides of two different universes.”

“And the symbols?”

“No known matches from the database,” Kíli said.  “Ruka, who sent this to you?”

“Claimed to be a collector,” Ruka said with a shrug.  “They said they were J’Hessel, from the Shard system.”

“If we were to virtually assemble the pieces,” Buffi suggested.  “Not the actual ones, but in a computer simulation—would we be able to figure out its purpose?”

Ruka grimaced.  “Possibly.”

Buffi put her hands on her hips.  “I don’t like this.”  She walked away from the debris.  Bruffi followed her.

“What’re you thinking, sis?” He asked.

“I’m thinking I’ve dealt with alternate dimensions to last me a lifetime so far,” Buffi muttered.  

“You haven't talked about that much,” Bruffi admitted.  “But I mean, the circumstances were so bizarre—“

“From one to another and back,” Buffi said.  “And I’m lucky to have survived the experience.”

“Fusing with your own double,” Bruffi continued.  “I don’t think _anyone_ could relate to that ordeal.  I get it.”

“So, yeah.  Whoever sent this to Ruka had the right idea that this should _never_ see the light of day,” Buffi said, putting an arm around her brother’s shoulder in a side hug.  

They were interrupted by Kíli walking around Buffi with a tricorder.  “Not meaning to interrupt this touching family moment,” he mumbled, “But just want to make sure…Eliminate the two universes you’d visited from this thing’s origin.”

Buffi chuckled.  “I hate coincidences.”

“Me too,” Kíli agreed.  “Fortunately, there’s no match.”

“Yay?” Bruffi interjected.  

Buffi shrugged, and then told Kíli, “So let’s get on that virtual mockup, and in the meanwhile,” she said to Bruffi,  “Why don’t I show you the terrors our friend Ruka created once upon a time.”

 

For the rest of the morning the K’gars strolled through the now illuminated warehouse, where they looked at the artifacts, with Kíli and Ruka annotating behind them the origin of each device.  DarkBird.  Sky-Shadow.  Fantascreen.  Mega-Missiles.  Each safely defused and dismantled (Though in some cases, the SilverHawks and the MC9 team took care of that.)

“What happened to PokerFace 2.0? Buffi asked.  And Buzz-saw for that matter?”

Ruka frowned. “You’d have to ask Gomphor.”

Buffi nodded.  “I’m most likely going to Brim*Star before the delivery of M’ret takes place,” she said.  “We know that the people that 2.0 and Buzz-saw were patterned after are long dead but Adam had always hoped that something could be done for their brain patterns, stuck in—“

“I know,” Ruka quietly said.  

“Whoa!” Kíli exclaimed.  “I’m getting…elevated tetryon particle activity.”  He held his tricorder out like a torch.  “This way.” 

 

Buffi and Bruffi raced ahead of where Kíli indicated, back to the mystery debris.  

 

They were met by an armed figure.  

 

“Hold it!” Buffi shouted.  Her phaser was out.  “Weapon down!”

It looked for all the world like a slingshot.  Buffi was confused.  “Put it down, or we will open fire!”

Buffi, phaser also out, nodded.  

Ruka took Kíli aside for a moment and handed him what looked like a staff.  “All your specifications, buddy, heh-heh,” he told him.  Kíli glared at the figure.  He seemed to be wearing goggles, and his mouth was covered in a woven scarf.  The arms were also covered, but here and there he made out bits of armor.  He frowned.  

“Commander…”

The stranger’s slingshot was pulled back, and Buffi inched closer, with Bruffi doing his best to circle to the back.  This pushed the stranger to release the slingshot

Instead of a projectile, a bolt of energy fired at Buffi.  She dove for the ground, and the explosion behind her pushed her forward by a meter.  

Bruffi fired his phaser.  The stranger took the beam by the arm, and their armor was enough to deflect the beam.

“Okay,” the younger Cainian growled.  “We do this the fun way.  Action!” 

With that, he shifted his uniform into his Action Suit.  In a single motion he pulled out his pair of daggers and swiped, edge back, at his arm.  The knife scraped at the hexagonal mail, but it wasn’t deflected.  Something in the metal diffuses phaser fire, Bruffi thought.  He took another step and attempted to make purchase with his elbow, but his opponent ducked.  

“Quickly!” Buffi exclaimed.  “Before he gets another chance to fire!”

“Commander, _wait_ …”

The Cainians ignored Kíli.  Buffi shifted into her own action suit and her dual blades were combined into the double edged Justice Keeper.  She leaped to the other side and aimed for the opponent’s chest.  

She was countered by a double-edged axe.  

“No,” Kíli keened, and threw himself into the fray with his newly acquired staff. Buffi and Bruffi were being fended off virtually at the same time.   Kíli leaped up, shoved Buffi aside and struck the stranger right in the goggles, sending him reeling.  Another strike across the stomach and the legs, and Kíli blitzed him.  He fell backwards, and Kíli held him down with his foot on his chest.  He pushed a thumb into his staff and it expanded outward into a bow.  An arrow materialized, and he pulled the string back.

“ _Galikh bakn_ ,” he told the stranger in his native Khuzdul.  “I hope you’ve enjoyed this little exercise…Nori?”

“Not exactly,” with a male voice, replied.  He removed his goggles, revealing his goat-like, Dwarvish eyes.  It took a moment for Kíli to realize that the two of them were scaled roughly the same.  The hexagonal mail armor and, of course, the knitted scarf work clinched it.  

He fully expected it to be Nori.  He’d broken into much more secure places.

He didn’t expect this.  Didn’t expect _him_.

The Dwarrow smirked as he pushed a device on his belt.  “All those questions,” he taunted.  Kíli turned white.  “And we just don't have the time.”  He got up, and before Buffi and Bruffi could stop him, he vanished in a flash of white light.

Kíli looked shaken.  he thumbed his bow back into a staff with a single gesture.  The two Cainians looked at him with concern.  Ruka came from behind the wreckage the Dwarven stranger caused.  

“Are you all right, Chief?” Bruffi asked.  Kíli never stopped looking at where the stranger disappeared.  

“It wasn’t Nori,” he breathed.  “It was… _Ori_.”


	3. Loser Gone Wild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recent revelations lead Buffi and co. to regroup. Ford makes an acquisition. Ori makes a move. Lorne tries to keep everyone on task.

It was still early morning on Fence.

Buffi, Bruffi and Kíli sat once again in their booth in Caritas.  The three had looked so forlorn in that a berobed Lorne had let them in to sit.  

Kíli held out a PADD.  The image on the screen was a drawing of a young Dwarrow-lad with his hair in a bowl cut, wispy beard and several braids.  His eyes were gentle, and set closely together.  He was rendered with a shy smile.  

“Self-portrait?” Bruffi asked.  He stared at the image with his green Cainian eyes.  He couldn’t believe the Khazad they’d barely kept up with was the same person.

“He was very talented,” Kíli said.  “And sensitive, as well; his older brother Dori was very protective of him; practically raised by him, actually.”

“The other brother?” Buffi asked, nursing a raktajino.  “The one who isn’t Nori?”

“Yes.  The one who is going to have his tea ruined if this ever gets to him, the old dilettante,” Kíli said.

“Geez, who died?” Lorne said, shuffling up to the booth.  He was still in his house shoes and pajamas.  Kíli, not looking the Pylean in the eye, grabbed him by the sleeve and loudly intoned:

 

_ala lukhudizu!_

_nala galabizu!_

_ala ukratizu!_

_Khazad-dûm!_

 

“There,” Kíli said to Lorne.  “Now you tell _me_ who died!”

“I hate when you all do that,” Lorne grumbled, putting a well-manicured hand to his head.  “He’s here for a mission, and it’s personal.  “You,” he emphasized, looking right at Kíli, “are going to have to figure out whether you help him or stop him, but either way…It’s going to hurt, and not bodily, if you get my drift.”

“Is he here because of that device?” Buffi absently asked.  “I mean, we _are_ talking alternate universe, right?”

“Is that what it is?” Kíli asked mostly himself.  “Is that junk what’s left of a dimensional portal device?”

“Portal?  What?” Lorne asked, suddenly getting very concerned.  “No portals here, guys!  I’m not doing _that_ again!”

“It wasn’t mystical,” Kíli said. “It was a physical portal device.”

“And someone basically dropped it off on Ruka’s doorstep,” Buffi added.  

Bruffi’s brows knitted.  “J’Hessel, of the Shard system,” he murmured.  “I don’t think I’ve heard of the Shard system.”

“J’Hessel,” Lorne repeated.  “That name sounds familiar.  If you can give me a few days, I might be able to help you.”

“You have until Thursday,” Buffi reminded him.  “Then we’re taking the Vice-Proconsul and we’re rendezvousing with the _Medi_.”

Kíli scowled.  “And any chance of finding out the reason the dead are walking around become more remote.”

“Like Lorne said, Kíli, He’s here for a reason.  If that dimensional portal is part of the reason, then our reconstructing it is a top priority,” Buffi said.

“We might need some more help from the Haven,” Bruffi suggested.  

“Okay, so back to the Haven…Kíli…?” Buffi suddenly looked awkward.

Kíli looked up from his funk.  “Hmm?”

“What are we going to tell his _other_ brother?  The one that _is_ Nori?”

 

***

 

Nori took a deep breath.

 

The artifact was within reach.  He was in the right position.  Closer…closer…

_Got it!_

Clearly the correspondence with the Tusken courier had paid off.  Dolare had virtually kept its security measures the same in almost a decade.  Pointing out the bank’s deficiencies was practically doing them a favor, he rationalized.

With the artifact secure on his person, he now began the process of retrieval.  He tugged on the tow line, which was connected to the anti-gravity device that kept him hovering before the exhibit case.  He counted off the seconds before he was in an area outside the transport scrambling zone.  He signaled his position, and before anyone on Dolare even realized, he was transported out.  

“This is very _exciting_!” Ford exclaimed, an enthusiastic grin on his face. “I’ve never been part of a heist before!”  He and Bofur were monitoring Nori’s progress from Ford’s small spacecraft, with the two-man transporter pad before them.  The computer console threw odd light upon their faces in the low light.

“This isn’t a heist, sunshine,” Bofur drawled. 

“Perhaps not for the likes of you, but I assure you, this is exhilarating,” Ford said, beaming.  

“It’s not over until the transaction is complete,” Bofur reminded Ford.  “You get your artifact once we receive the latinum.”

“Fortunately for me, the latinum is no object,” Ford said.  

“Then why are we robbing a bank?”  Bofur asked.

“That’s _my_ business,” Ford snapped.  

“Fair enough.  Nori, love!”  Bofur quickly moved to the transporter pad and gave Nori a peck on the cheek.  “That’s for being brilliant.”

“I think I’m worth more than a peck,” Nori pouted.  

“Later,” Bofur promised, waggling his eyebrows.

“Before the transaction, I’ll need to examine what you’ve acquired.”

“Fair enough,” Nori said.  They moved to Ford’s makeshift workshop table where he placed a bright light upon the object. It was shaped like a badge, but with symbols that Nori and Bofur could identify in Tengwar.  The words, however…

“This is High Numenorean,” Nori said.  “This had to have come from Gondor.”

“Not given lightly, I’m sure,” Bofur added.  “What does this do?”

“This,” Ford explained, “Is, essentially, a data transfer device.”

“What’s on it?” Nori asked.

Ford looked up at the computer console.  The display made it clear the computer was working on decrypting the data.  “As soon as I’m sure that the data isn’t corrupted, you’ll get your fifty bars of latinum.”

“Fifty?” Nori exclaimed, his braided eyebrows lifting up.  “It was forty that was promised in the contract.”

“The two of you have done your jobs to the tee,” Ford said, squinting one eye at the device.  “The extra ten, you can consider a…well, a promissory expense.”

“It means he wants you to acquire more of these things in the future, love,” Bofur explained.  

“Well, that’s all _right_!”  Nori said, grabbing the lapels of his jacket and grinning.  

“If all goes well, and I can get all the components I need, this will culminate in traveling to Minas Tirith,” Ford murmured, then exclaimed, “This is so _exciting_!  I read all the books!”

“Good…for you, mate,” Nori said.  “Now about my bob.”

 

***

 

 

Back at the Haven, Buffi worked at a console on the Eyrie.  She shared the space with Kíli, and the two of them began to piece together the portal device.  What began to materialize on the computer display caused Kíli’s brow to furrow.  

“The central locus…here,” Kíli said, pointing at the schematic for Buffi, “And the two gravitic generators on each side…here.”  The actual portal window was triangular in shape, with a circular hole in the center.  

“But where exactly did this portal lead to?” Buffi asked.  “How would you choose which universe to visit?”

“I’d like to ask the same of your mysterious friend Multiverse,” Kíli replied.  

“ _Friend_ ,” Buffi muttered.  “I don’t know _what_ he is.”

“He’s a being who can basically do what this device does,” Kíli stated.  “And yet, according to your log entries, is barely communicative, possibly existing in a fugue state.  And yes, his humanoid appearance might merely be an illusion.”

“Do you think this alternate Ori might have arrived because of Multiverse?” Buffi asked.  

Kíli didn’t look her in the eye.  “Anything’s possible.  Let’s don’t rule anything out.”

 

“Commander,” Bruffi’s voice arose from the other side of the Eyrie.  “Chief!”

Buffi looked over her shoulder to see her brother with two other officers flanking him.  One of them was human.  The other was…Khazad, like Kíli.

“Two officers from the _Tomcat_ , sis,” Bruffi began.  This is Lieutenant…

“Lieutenant Danforth Tetryon McGucket,” The human officer spoke up, sticking out his hand to Buffi, who took it gingerly.  “I’ve heard a bit about you.”

Buffi smiled slightly.  “All good, I hope.”

“Captain Reid-LeBeau has told a tale or two, I’m not gonna…”

“All right, say no more,” Buffi said, shaking her head.  And…oh.  Ensign Doeli.”

Kíli had already turned and greeted his younger cousin, their foreheads touching. 

“How’s your father?” Kíli asked.  “Do you speak with him often?”

“Not as much as he’d like,” Doeli admitted.  “But there’s been a shakeup; the _Tomcat_ crew’s been dispersed, and I’ve been posted to the Haven, temporarily.  Ensign K’gar said something about an alternate universe?”

McGucket had an odd look on his face.  His face temporarily went blank.  “Did you all say…?”

Buffi rolled her eyes.  “We’re still doing research, Lieutenant.  If you want to examine…?”

Ryon McGucket cracked his knuckles before taking Buffi’s place at the console.  “This is definitely some kind of gravitic-powered device,” he murmured.  “The orifice and the metallic composition look remarkably like…Well, shut me up.”

Kíli looked on.  McGucket almost effortlessly put the remaining pieces together, and extrapolated pieces that were apparently missing.  “All right, lad, tell me what we’ve found.”

“It’s the Portal device my ancestor helped build back in the 1970s,” Ryon explained.  “Fiddleford Hadron McGucket.”

Buffi frowned and turned to Kíli.  “That long ago?  Humans couldn’t have—no offense, Lieutenant—couldn’t have come up with this that early.  Not without help.”

Ryon looked at her.  “You don’t _know_?”

 

***

 

When Captain Adam Reid sat down to receive Commander K’gar’s progress report in his ready room on the _USS Mediterranean_ , he was met by a contentious Cainian face.

“Yes, Commander,” he said, putting his mug down on a coaster.  

“So we’ve been helping Hardware identify a bit of technology that fell in his lap,” Buffi began.”

“What about the timetable for the Vice-Proconsul?” Reid asked.

“It’s on schedule, delivery is due in three days,” Buffi said, dismissively.  “But in the meantime, There’s this large amount of junk that’s causing some havoc, especially with Kíli.”

“How’s that?” Adam asked.  He began to get concerned.

“We were analyzing the wreckage of this device—this possibly _trans-dimensional_ device,” She added with emphasis, “And suddenly this…guy shows up, weapons up, we tussle, and then it’s revealed that it’s a Khazad like Kíli, and someone that he knows,” Buffi explained.  “Except he’s supposedly dead.”

Adam’s eyes widened.  “Who?”

“Kíli said his name was Ori,” Buffi said.

“Ori…” Adam repeated the name.  “Was in Thorin’s Company to Erebor, along with Fíli and Kíli, who were Thorin’s nephews.”

“I remember from Bilbo’s book,” Buffi reminded him.  “I’ve got Nori and Bofur running around Limbo as well, up to probably no kind of good.”  Buffi looked woebegone as she poked her canine snout toward the screen.  “ _Please_ tell me you can get here faster.”

“According to your report you’ve got some backup…Ah, there’s that McGucket kid again…”

“We’ve met already, and he’s told me that his ancestor made this…portal thingy back in the late 1970’s,” Buffi told him.

Buffi didn’t expect Adam’s eyes to bug out.  “Oh god.  Buffi, have you by any chance come across this man?”

Buffi received a photograph of a man with fluffed up hair and large spectacles.  He had a rather prominent, pink nose and an awkward smile.

Buffi frowned.  “Yes.  Yes I have.  Bruffi was right.”

“What’s that?” Adam inquired.

“Never mind.  His name’s Stanford?”

Adam nodded.  “Dr. Stanford Pines.  He’s the twin brother of Stanley; We found him where Joy was living.  After we took care of him, I took him to Deep Space Nine.”

Buffi got straight to the point.  “What do I need to know about him?

“I’ll get what you need to know uploaded to you,” Adam promised, and muttered, “Didn’t take long for him to pop up.”  

“You need to tell me everything about Oregon as soon as you get here,” Buffi told him.

“I will,” Adam told his first officer.  “Reid out.”

 

He remained in his chair for a moment before he got up and paced.  “Computer, send a priority-one message to Dr. Fíli on Earth…”

 

 

 

***

 

Back in Caritas, Ford sat alone.  

A juice blend sat before him.  

“You haven’t sung,” the Host said.  He was dressed in cadmium blue, Ford approximated, and everything seemed to sparkle.  He sighed.  

“No.”

“That’s part of the draw, you know—singing in front of me.”

“I’m aware.  You _are_ from the Deathwok Clan, after all.”

Lorne side-eyed him, while sipping at his Sea Breeze—no synthehol—and said.  “Most people don’t know that.”

“Most people haven’t been to Pylea,” Ford replied.  “I’ve had the privilege.”

“Before or after the political shake-up?” Lorne asked.

“After.  The Groosalugg still worried about his Princess,” Ford explained, “But settled into a fairly solid role as leader.  He used a word, _kyrumption_ , that didn’t quite translate for me, but he seemed quite wistful.”  Ford shrugged.  “Not that I could relate.”

“ _kyrumption_ ,” Lorne explained, “describes when two warriors meet on the field of battle and recognize their mutual fate.”

“Hmm.  I believe I have experienced this _kyrumption_ , then.”  He turned to Lorne.  “I may have some unpleasant news to convey.”

Lorne turned one well-manicured eyebrow up.  “What’s that, professor?”

“When I was in Pylea, I happened to find myself in the middle of a great mourning.  The matriarch of the Deathwok Clan…”

“Stop.”  Lorne put his hand on the bar next to Ford’s.  “It’s been centuries anyway.”

“It was said that she despised her missing spawn significantly less in her dying years,” Ford offered.

“Nice to see old age mellowed Mom out,” Lorne muttered.  “Who took over?  Landok?”

Ford nodded.  Lorne did too.

“I don’t need to fully read you to know that you’re desperately trying to stop something from happening,” Lorne told Ford.  “And that you’ve gone out of your way to avoid the K’gars.”

Lorne merely looked at him, then sighed, and relented.

 

_One day you're a hero_

_Next day you're a clown_

_There's nothing that is in between_

_Now you're a 21st Century Man._

 

“I haven’t just been to Pylea,” Ford told Lorne.  “I think you’re also familiar with Quor’Toth.”

“What does that have to do with the Void?” Lorne asked, more than slightly worried, but mostly confused.  

“I can’t take the risk that Starfleet will stop me from doing what’s necessary,” Ford said.  “I was responsible for a lot of suffering once, and I can’t let it happen again.”

“Buffi isn’t going to stop you if you’re doing the right thing,” Lorne said.  “She’s a Champion—you want someone like her on your side!”

Ford had no reply.

“And I don’t know if you know this, but the thief you hired?  He’s gonna want to know why his baby brother is alive in this dimension.”

 

 

***

 

“So, let’s sum up,” Bofur said to Nori, as they walked down the steps of the Bed-Lama Trade Commission.  “We’ve secured a right to mine not only their Oort Cloud but a good section of the Kuipier Belt as well, which does me and mine right proud, But you’ve gotten fifty bars of latinum on a side job to prove that you’ve still got the stuff.”  Bofur smiled at Nori.  “This is the best anniversary present ever.”

“Quite right it is,” Nori agreed.  “And I think I’ve got the next job lined up for us.  Have you ever heard of Tartarus V?”

Bofur waved the question away.  “No more talk of work,” Bofur said.  “I think we’ve deserved more than enough reward for our efforts.  And haven’t I promised you a trip to Risa?”

 

“Oi!  You two!”

 

Bofur turned to the public square where the vaguely mollusk-like Bed-Lamans were congregating and strolling along, except for one figure in a Starfleet jumpsuit.  

It was Kíli. 

He paused at the bottom of the stairs to catch his breath, while Bofur and Nori looked on with concern on their faces.  “Kee?” Bofur said, putting a hand on Kíli’s back. “What’s this about?”

“You need to come with me.  Your lives might be in jeopardy,” Kíli said, gulping air in.  

“A-all right?” Nori said, looking at Bofur.  

“Kíli to _Tuscarawas_ ,” he said.  “Transport three from my coordinates.”

[Unable to comply,] the runabout’s computer replied from Kíli’s comm badge.  [Transport lock disrupted by outside source.]

“Mahal’s balls,” Kíli cursed.  “I hope I’m not too late.”

 

An explosion behind them gave the answer.  Kíli had enough time to see the marble facade of the Trade Commission shatter, creating a dust cloud that made it impossible to see.  The three ducked down as panicked citizens cried and ran from the stairs.  

As the dust died down, Kíli could see that the entire front of the building had been ruined.  Shards of marble and alabaster lay everywhere.  Conduit and rebar stuck out of the building like exposed bones.  

The three dwarves were covered in dust.  Kíli’s eyes looked dark in contrast to the white powder that now covered his face.  His expression was even darker.

 

 

“Well, now,” A voice called down from atop the stairs. “That’s a face that’ll stop a clock,”  If Nori’s face wasn’t already white with the dusty powder, it was now.

 

His face no longer framed with the goggles, his scarf away from his mouth, there was no doubt who it was now.  The close-set eyes, the amused smile on his face.  

There was no doubt now that it was Ori.

 

“It’s just as well that your time is up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The two songs in this chapter are
> 
> 1) The chorus which was sung in Khuzdul during Moria scenes in PJ's Fellowship
> 
> 2) 21st Century Man by ELO. (I might have been listening to them a lot in writing this)


	4. No Way Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ford comes onboard.

”Whatever it is you want, don’t have to hurt anybody,” Kíli called up to Ori.

“That’s rich, coming from you,” Ori sneered.  “First thing you did when you saw me was hit me with your clever little stick.”

“That doesn’t matter now!” Kíli replied.  He stood up and attempted to get his footing amongst the rubble.  

“O-Ori?” Nori’s voice was very small.  He looked up at the Dwarrow atop the stairs.  It looked like Ori, but he’d aged, just as they’d all done.  A few years on him had taken most of the awkwardness out of his demeanor. His hair had more braids, though his beard was still trimmed short.  His outfit looked off-world.  

Ori glared at Kíli.  “What is this?!” He hissed.  

“It’s your brother,” Kíli said.  “Or at least our version of him.”  Nori, for his part looked too shocked to express an emotion, though tears had begun to stain his dust-covered cheeks.  Bofur merely looked bewildered.  

Ori’s mouth thinned to a line.  “So it’s true.  In this dimension _I’m_ the one who died.”

“We can talk about this,” Kíli pleaded.

“We really _can’t_ ,” Ori replied.  “I’m only here for one reason, and the lot of you are aligned with folks that would stop me. So,” He said, holstering the slingshot-weapon that had caused the damage.  “I rather think I’m off.”

 

He didn’t see the blow from behind.  

 

In a Starfleet action suit, Dœli had come from behind Ori and had gotten in a shot with her melee weapon.  It struck him squarely in the back, knocking the wind out of him, and he went down rather quickly.  

 

“Are transporter locks still being scrambled?” Kíli asked her.

“Not anymore,” She replied.  

“Let’s get this lot up to the Haven,” he told her.  The sirens of emergency vehicles had begun to fill the air.  Starfleet and Bed-Lama personnel began to canvass the scene.  It was just as well that they beamed out of there before it got too crowded

 

Ori was placed in the medical wing of Hawk Haven’s brig.  Dr. Nathuntarj looked him over.  

Nori, for his part, was given a mild sedative.  

Bofur sat with him and held Nori’s hand, their foreheads touching.  

 

Back up in Stargazer’s office in the Eyrie, Commander Buffi K’gar wasn’t happy.  

“This is a mess,” she sighed.  “This is a big mess and it wasn’t even one that I _made_ this time!”

“That’s got to be a strange feeling for you,” Stargazer quipped.

“I know; I’m used to being the cause of the chaos,” Buffi replied, and chuckled.  “But seriously, what are we gonna do about this.”

“Well, according to the canvassers,” Stargazer told her, “The Trade Commission’s damage was superficial.  Couple months, good as new.”

“We still don’t know why he’s here,” She sighed.  “Still don’t know what connection he has to Ford Pines or his Portal, or _why Ford Pines is here_ for that matter.”  She paused and then moaned,  “And I still got a Romulan on ice to deliver to Earth!”

“Well it seems pretty clear what you need to do,” Stargazer told her.  “If this Pines guy is the one that’s responsible for all of this, then he’s the one you need to help you fix it.”

Buffi’s brow knitted.  Her whiskers twitched a bit.  “But he’s—“

“He’s the one.  You get him on your team, and everything’ll fall into place,” Stargazer assured her.  “And if he doesn’t cooperate, then he’ll be one less variable.  And you hate variables, remember?”

The man did have a point.

 

Kíli and Dœli were outside Stargazer’s office, waiting for Buffi.  She closed the door behind her (Stargazer insisted on having a door with hinges) And clasped her hands behind her back.  The two Khazad looked at her expectantly.

“We’ve got to get a hold of Dr. Pines,” She told them.  “He’s the key to this.”

Kíli’s mouth turned up a bit.  “Then we might want to talk to Nori and Bofur,” he told her.  “I think we both know they were up to something with him.”

“Also, Commander?” Dœli spoke up.  “We received word that Cous—That _Dr_. Fili is en route to Limbo.”

“It’s fast becoming another Reunion,” Kíli said ruefully.  “I don’t suppose anyone’s contacted Bilbo Baggins?”

Buffi smiled faintly.  “Not as yet, though I’m sure he and Frodo would be more than interested in this turn of events.”

“Forgive me, Commander,” Kíli said. “I know you’re close to them as well.”

Buffi shrugged, and put her hands over her long hound-like snout.  “All right, let’s go.”

 

As they walked toward the main turbo lift, Ryon McGucket hurried over to them, and addressed Buffi.  “Commander!”

“You’re part of the team, Lieutenant,” She told him.  “Come with us.”

 

As they piled into the lift, Ryon continued to talk.  “It’s just that, ma’am—I was to understand that I was going to be in a support role.  I was the junior science officer on the _Tomcat_ , but they moved me to operations soon after—“

“Oh,” Buffi drawled.  “We had one of those on the _Medi_.  I helped turn him into the second officer.  Andorian, Lt. Commander Aldor.

“Oh.  Well,” Ryon said.  “Does he do many away missions?”

“Once we pried him off of the science station, he was aiming his tricorder at unknowns all over the place.”  Buffi appreciated the earnestness of McGucket.  Like Aldor, he just needed a confidence boost.

Dœli looked up at McGucket.  He had a prominent, aquiline nose, and a permanently worried expression.  His hair was trimmed close, but seemed to have a permanent cowlick.  “If it’s any consolation, sir, I requested cross-training in operations so I could move away from security detail,” she told him.

“When you put on the gold uniform,” Kíli told them both, “Be prepared to be able to do anything and everything in service to a starship.  That’s what I was taught when I went in myself long ago.”

 

Bruffi had remained with the Dwarves outside the brig.  Ori had been treated and examined by Dr. Nat.  The Caitian physician, outside of Fili himself, had treated more of the peoples of Arda than anyone else in Starfleet.  

Nori was still confused.  Bofur had held on to both his hands.  When Buffi and her entourage had arrived, he stood up.  

“What is going on, Commander?” he demanded.  “Who is this Dwarf?  Is this Ori?”

Kíli took the point.  “Yes…and not quite, Bo,” he told him.

Bofur screwed his eyes shut, and balled his fists in frustration.  “What is that supposed to _mean_?”

“It means that he’s from an alternate universe,” Kíli replied.  “A reality in which the events of history unfolded differently.  That’s all I can tell you.”

Nori looked over to the cell.  “ _He_ could tell us.”

“No,” Buffi said.  “There’s someone else that could tell us.  And I’m pretty sure you know who he is.”

“Dr. Science?” Bofur said.  

Nori cursed.  

“We’ve already parted ways,” Bofur said.  “And the arrangement was that he could contact us, not the other way ‘round.”

“What did he have you steal?” Kíli asked Nori, getting straight to the point.

“Some Numenorean artifact,” Nori replied.  _Because screw confidentiality when his baby brother was alive in a cell._   “He gave me ten extra bars of Latinum as an advance for the next job.”

“Well, you _are_ the best,” Kíli said.  Nori responded with a faint smile.

“Can you give me his ship’s last known coordinates?” “Buffi inquired.

“Of course,” Bofur said.

“Do we know which universe he came from?” Nori asked.

 

It stopped them dead in their tracks.

 

Kíli finally spoke up.  “Well, we did the same for the portal device to figure out where that came from…sort of,” He told them.  Doctor, is he still out?”

Dr. Nat nodded.  “He’ll be out for hours,” he replied, purring his R’s.

“Then let’s see what he’s vibrating at,” Kíli muttered, grabbing his tricorder and turning off the force field.  He looked down at Ori.  His snoring form was wearing a sickbay gown, and sound aseep.  His mouth was wide open…Just like their Ori had done. Kíli frowned and continued his work.  

“All right, got the quantum resonance…” he said, then frowned.  “Oh.  OH.  Buffi!”

He hurried out of the cell, and got the force field back on.  

“This Ori came from the same universe that you were sent to!”

Everyone looked at Buffi.  She shook her head.  “It’s easy enough to cross the threshold between the two realities, but it doesn’t explain why he’s here.”

Kíli and McGucket both looked at the data.  “It also matches the same resonance that Kirk’s _Enterprise_ recorded when they swapped folks by accident,” Ryon confirmed.  

“What would become of an Arda,” Buffi wondered aloud, “Where instead of a Federation, a Terran Empire existed for hundreds of years…and then, an Alliance of the Klingons and Cardsasians?  What would keep it safe?”

“Who else?” Bofur said.  “Gandalf, of course!”

“Or Sauron,” Kíli countered.  “This universe has an ‘up-is-down’ sort of reputation.”

“Still,” Buffi said, attempting to keep the Dwarves on track.  “I think our best bet is to use the runabout to see if we can track Pines down.”

“Commander, the Vice-Proconsul,” Kíli reminded her.  

She breathed out through her nose.  “Bruffi,” she called to her brother.

“Yes, Commander,” he said.

“I want you and Dœli to Stay on the Haven with Commander Kíli.  Lieutenant McGucket and I will go after Pines.”

The younger Cainian nodded.  

“That way, if the delivery is made ahead of schedule, the lot of you can secure him.  Captain Reid and the _Medi_ ought to be here ahead of schedule— _if he knows what’s good for him_ —And everything will go off without a hitch.”  She paused for a moment.  “Nori, Bofur, do you want to come with?”

“I will,” Bofur said.  “Nori, you should stay here.”

Nori didn’t protest, but instead kept his sad gaze on Ori.  “Right, then.”

 

 

***

 

 

On the _Tuscarawas_ , Buffy and Ryon headed for Stanford Pines’ last known location.  Bofur for the most part stayed in the crew cabin, occasionally strolling through the cockpit area.  Between ship status reporting, the two began to find out which people they had in common.  

“Pinesville?” Buffi exclaimed.  “Is that where Joy ended up moving?”

“Right!” Ryon affirmed.  “Ms. Gamling had received a distinction for her line of mech units, and it earned her an award from my family’s Foundation.  Naturally, I was pleased as punch she was moving to my hometown.”

“And Adam went down there to visit with her and to meet his new nephew,” Buffi remembered.  “And apparently got a lot more than he bargained for.”

“The Foundation had figured that after the events of August 2012, that any of Stanford Pines’ secret sanctums had been utterly destroyed,” Ryon told Buffi.  “But instead, Captain Reid and Ms. Gamling had not only discovered that her home used to be the Mystery Shack, but those sub-basements as well.”

“All those robots are going down here,” Buffi sighed.  “So you met Adam, and his sister, and you served with Josh Reid-Lebeau?”

“I did, up until recently.”  Ryon slumped his shoulders.  “We had the farewell reception for Josh on Luna.  Lake Armstrong to be exact.”

“ _That’s_ right!  My husband Raphael got to go to that…”. Buffi craned her neck toward Ryon.  “Did they get him to do the pinball trick?”

Ryon rolled his eyes and chuckled.  “Yes, they got Captain Reid-Lebeau to do the Pinball Trick.  He took out like a dozen lights.”

“Yes!” Buffi pumped her fist.  

“What’s the Pinball Trick?” Bofur casually asked.  He had replicated himself a bowl of toffee peanuts and was munching away.

Ryon and Buffi looked at each other, and Buffi began to snigger.  “Well, to explain the Pinball Trick, we have to explain…”

“…Have to explain certain…idiosyncrasies about the Captain…” Ryon continued.

“Ah.  I know where you’re going with this.  This is Joshua Reid-Lebeau, yeah?” Bofur asked for confirmation.

“Right,” Buffi said.

“The one Glóin’s son calls Joshua Falling-Star,” Bofur went on.  “The one that can…” and Bofur made vague whooshing noises and gestured back and forth with his arms.

“Then you probably already know what we…” Buffi cut herself off.  “Got the ion trail. Lieutentant, can you track it?”

“Already on it, Commander,” Ryon replied.  “The ion trail leads… _well_.  It seems to be leading back to Fence.”

“Back to Fence,” Buffi grumbled.  “Back to Fence, it is, Lieutenant.  Plot the course and away we go.”

“We coulda gone there the whole time,” Bofur remarked, still snacking.  “Dr. Science only thinks he's clever.”

“Clever enough,” Buffi sighed.  

 

They re-entered Caritas once again.  It was well before business began to pour in, and there was Ford, standing and talking with concern with the Host.  

Buffi managed a tight smile as she walked right up to the two of them.  “Stanford!” she exclaimed cheerfully.  “If I knew it was this easy to keep track of you, We could have sung a duet during the lunch rush!”

Ford was about to grin with a glib rejoinder, but saw the glint of sharpness in the Cainian’s green eyes, and the way she carried herself as she stalked towards him, ignoring the other two behind her.  One was the Dwarf, Bofur.  He was no doubt coerced into cooperating with Starfleet, he reasoned.  The other…

Looked rather _familiar_.  The posture, the nose, the way his hair seemed to fly away from him.  

_No_ , he thought.  _Put a pin in that for now._

 

“Let’s pull up a few chairs and have us a chat,” K’gar told him.  “I _insist_.”

“Buffi—“ Lorne began, but stopped when he too saw the look in her eye.  

“Send over a service of Tarkalean tea,” She told him.

The two sat down.  Buffi noticed that Ford’s clothes were a little more modern, but much the same kind of intellectual wear, with the pads on the elbows and the mock turtleneck in maroon.  Buffi this time was in the Starfleet jumpsuit, with her red command color on her shoulders and a purple-grey undershirt peeking around her own collar.  She swished her tail out toward the outside as she sat down and when the tea service arrived, she filled Ford’s cup.

“Now,” she said.  “Let’s ‘dance this mess around’, as Josh says.”

“Right to the point,” Ford replied, adding a sugar cube to his cup.  

“I really do prefer it,” Buffi said.  “And besides, I think we both know enough about the other at this point.”

Ford nodded in concession.  

“The fact of the matter is, I’m not interested in why you brought yourself to the 24th century and your brother along with you.  I’ll leave that for Adam to deal with.  But I have a mission that keeps getting sidetracked because of your influence, and…”

“I assure you, It was not my intent.  I have a mission of my own,” Ford explained.  “One that I don’t want to get sidetracked from either.”

“Just so we have an understanding,” Buffi finished, putting up her hands.  “But here’s the problem.  To cut down on any unnecessary problems, I visited Ruka Vinata’s warehouse.  There we found the remains of a device that we’ve decided has been donated by you.  You’re J’Hessel, aren’t you?”

Ford said nothing.

“In any case, while helping Ruka examine the debris, someone appeared.  Someone that my teammate identified as a fellow named Ori, who in this universe died about forty-five years ago.”  Buffi paused and took a sip of her tea.  “He was understandably distraught.”

Ford didn’t meet her gaze.  “I see.”

“This is where you tell me what I need to know,” Buffi prompted.

“If Ori was drawn to the remains of the Portal, as I suspect,” Ford began, “That means that he was merely making a short dimensional jump from one plane to the other.”

“Okay but why your device?”  Buffi asked.

Ford cleared his throat.  “As you no doubt ascertained, the device is made with materials not of this dimension.  Even in its inert state, it has properties that will pull a dimensional traveller away from his intended destination. It could be a few miles; it could be a few light-years.”

“Could you calculate where he was trying to go?” Buffi asked.

“Perhaps, but without his cooperation, it’s very remote a chance,” Ford replied.

“Here’s a question that I need absolute honesty from you,” Buffi said.  “Were you and Ori in any kind of collusion or communication prior to our finding him?”

“I am aware of the ‘universe next door,’ so to speak, and I was aware that someone had travelled from that universe to this one,” Ford explained carefully.  “I’m even aware of Ori as a fictional character in other dimensions’ tales.  But have he and I met?  No.  You have to understand, I haven’t left this universe since 2012.”

Buffi nodded.  “All right.”  She finished her tea and got up.  “Let’s go.”

“Go?” Ford asked.  He cocked his head in confusion.  

“You’re coming with me,” Buffi told him.  “This Khazad’s already caused some damage, both structural and emotional, and I want to know why he’s here.  You’re partly responsible for him being in Limbo, at least peripherally, and you can help me get him where he needs to be, one way or another.  Congratulations, Doctor Pines,” Buffi said reaching out to Ford with her hand.  “You’re on the team.”

Ford glanced again at the young man with Bofur.  Buffi didn’t notice his shoulders rising up as they exited the club.  

She also didn’t notice Ryon looking over his shoulder as well.  Bofur did, of course, but they were already on their way.

 

Bofur and Buffi remained on the _Tusc_ while Ford’s ship followed them, with Ryon aboard to assure Ford’s cooperation.

 

Ryon sat in the copilot seat for the most part.  Looking throughout the cabin at Ford’s handwritten notes that were plastered virtually everywhere.  The urge to just…grab every piece of paper and pore over every note the man… _THE_ MAN!…had written was overwhelming.

Instead, Ryon McGucket sat there, and kept the ship steady for Ford.

“You know, the ship can keep apace with the runabout on auto,” Ford’s voice came from the cockpit entrance. Ryon craned his neck to see Ford leaning on the doorway. “Feel free to make yourself at home.”  he chuckled.  “Such as it is.”

Ryon exhaled.  “To be honest, I’m a little bit in awe.”

“I saw you eyeing my scribblings a moment ago,” Ford offered.  “Was there something you wanted to…”

“Yes?” Ryon immediately grabbed the first piece of paper he could get his hands on, then another, and another.  

“…Read?” Ford finished.  

“After a moment of examining the notes, Ryon finally spoke.  “You taught yourself how to fly this ship?” 

Ford nodded.  “It took a few days to get the gist of warp engineering and from there I tweaked the ship’s intermix settings…”

“You taught yourself warp field dynamics?” Ryon asked.

“Well, to be fair, I’d suspected that subspace existed back in the 20th century,” Ford admitted, putting his hands in his pockets.  “All this technology at the fingertips of, well, everyone!  How could I not learn everything I could about it?”

The helm beeped out a signal and Ryon turned around.  “Correcting course, mark .23,” he announced. “Maintaining distance and velocity with _Tuscarawas_.”

Ford nodded.  “I should have warned you, the helm does tend to drift a little portside on auto.”

“That’s quite all right,” Ryon said. 

 A moment passed.  “So, about this elephant in the room?”

Ford’s face flushed, and averted his gaze.  “How do you mean?”

“You’re Stanford Pines,” Ryon reminded him.  “You worked closely for years with my ancestor Fiddleford.”

Ford nodded.  “Quite true.”

“I know there’s a family resemblance,” Ryon leveled with Ford.

“There really is,” Ford admitted.

“It’s all right.  Your brother thought so as well.”

Ford didn’t reply to that.  

Ryon got up and stood in front of Ford.  He put his hand on his shoulder, causing Ford to react slightly.  Ryon smiled.  “Don’t worry.  The Foundation’s committed to keeping its promise to you and your brother until the time is right.” He came in even closer.  “I haven’t told them anything about the origins of Pinesville.”

Ford’s face was stone as he shrugged off Ryon McGucket’s hand.  “Captain Reid’s a very clever man.  Foundation or no, he has resources at his fingertips that can’t be discounted.”

“You have to realize that if Captain Reid or even Commander K’gar asks me what I know about these specific events, I’ll have to tell them what I know.  And that can all be corroborated with the Legacy Database.”

Ford sighed.  “You really do look like Fidds,” he told Ryon, who smiled.  “But I can’t indulge in my memory of him.  And neither can you, for that matter.”

“In the here and now, we have someone from that other universe,” Ryon said, sitting back in the copilot chair.  

“As far as I can tell, the events that happened on Arda are all but spot-on what happened in the book, but no one remembers the book in this century,” Ford said, thinking aloud, eliciting a curious glance from Ryon.  “But how the events transpired in the ‘mirror’ universe is anyone’s guess.”

“So it looks like we do have to talk to his Ori and find out what’s going on?” Ryon asked.  “But how does he get back?”

“Well there’s all sorts of means to traverse the multiverse,” Ford explained.  

“The original crossover involved an ion storm causing a power surge to propel a transporter beam across dimensions,” Ryon explained.

“It’s a miracle that all parties involved didn’t become bio-organic detritus on the transporter pad,” Ford said.  “But enough about the luck of _that_ starship captain, we need to see what Ori used.  That might hold a clue.”

 

When the _Tuscarawas_ and Ford Pines’s ship arrived and docked within Hawk Haven, Buffi and her group were greeted by Bruffi and his.  

“M’ret is all set to arrive at Caritas in roughly seventy-two hours,” Bruffi reported.  “His two aides have been arranged to go on ahead of him to their final destination.”

“What _is_ their final destination?” Ryon asked.  

“That’s still classified for now,” Buffi replied.  “Need to know basis.”

“We’ve gone through Ori’s personal effects,” Kíli added.  “We found something of interest.”

As they walked through the corridor leading into the center of the station, He handed Buffi a PADD.  She looked it over and frowned.  

“A dimensional shift device?” she said.  “Doctor?”

Ford was given the PADD and tapped at it a bit.  “This looks very similar to a device that I believe they were using on Rutia IV.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Buffi agreed.  “In that case, they were using these shifters as a quick and _very_ dirty way of committing terrorist acts.”

“Dirty as in life-theatening,” Kíli added.  “Dimensional shifting in this manner causes cell damage—Fíli'd told me about this.  However, this device has improved upon that original design.”

“Is it cleaner?” Buffi asked.  

“Yes…and no,” Kíli explained.  “You see, The same armor that was able to diffuse Bruffi’s phaser also seems to shield Ori from the deleterious effect of the dimensional shift.  A more thorough metallurgical analysis should give us a clue.”

“I could help with that,” Bofur offered.  Kíli nodded his approval.  

“Has anyone spoken to Ori?” Buffi asked. 

Kíli shook his head.  “Not even Nori, not yet.  He’s camped out by his cell, but as far as I know the two of them haven’t said boo to the other.”

“They probably don’t know what to say.  Nori hasn’t seen his brother alive in decades,” Buffi said.

 

 Which caused Ford to pause for a moment.  A worrisome look spread across his face. 

 

Ryon noticed.  He swung back to Ford and again put his hand on his shoulder.  “It’s okay, Doctor.”  

With a nod, Ford continued apace with the others.

 

 

Back at the holding cells, Nori continued to look at Ori.  They both remained silent.

 

Finally, Ori spoke up.  

 

“Nori.”

 

Nori remained silent.  

 

“Nori,” Ori repeated, a little louder.  Nori shook his head.  Buffi and Ford returned to the brig area, the others left to their own assignments.  

“No,” Nori said, barely above a whisper.  “No.  You’re not him.  He was…he was so _young_ …”

Ori shook his head and smiled.  “No, I suppose I’m not that.  I haven't been that little Dwarrow-lad in ages and ages.  I’m sorry.”

Buffi said nothing, but hung back toward the door.  Nori looked up at Ori.  “For what?”

“I was never supposed to interact with counterparts from my own life,” Ori explained.  “We should never have met.  I would never hurt you.”

“You nearly blew me up!” Nori cried.  “ _And_ me husband!”

Ori outright cackled.  “Mahal keep me!” He chuckled.  “I should have known.  No, I’m sorry, I only caused the ruckus on Bed-Lama to try to make a getaway.  But that damnable wreckage keeps putting my trajectory off.”  He spoke directly to Buffi and Ford.  “I suppose that’s what you want to know about.”

“Among other things,” Buffi affirmed.  “This is my colleague, Dr. Pines.  He has some questions about your dimensional shift device.  

“I don’t have time to explain anymore,” Ori said.  “I have to complete my mission.”

“We need more than that,” Buffi replied, shaking her head.  “You’ve attacked three Starfleet officers and caused more than a little property damage.  I’m not prepared to forgive all that unless there’s a really good reason.”

“Look,’ Ori told her.  “I’m sorry the three of you took a few lumps, but I’m not from around here.  There’s no one here I can really trust.”

Ford cleared his throat, and spoke up.  “I noticed a few of your personal effects seemed rather familiar, Mr. Ori,” he said.  “You had some kind of pendant.”  

“That’s right,” Ori replied.  “It was given to me when I was in great need.”

Ford softened his tone. “How long have you been traveling?” 

Ori looked off to the side and scoffed.  “Forever, feels like.”

Ford fished into his pocket and produced the pendant.  “This is yours, Ori,” he told the Khazad.  He put it on the ground in front of the cell.  When he got up he fiddled with his collar.  He produced a similar pendant.  “This is mine.”

Ori’s eyes widened.  “You…?”

“Many, many years ago,” Ford said.  “I was far from home and She was a refuge for a time.  As I suspect she was for you as well.”  With that, he tapped on the side of his head, creating a metallic sound.  Ori did likewise, but over his heart.  

“Dimension 52,” Ori murmured.  

“So will you let us help you,” Ford asked.  “So you can help us?”

Ori took a deep breath, closing his eyes, then opened them, gazing directly at Buffi.  

“I was sent here in advance to secure the delivery of a very precious cargo.  It’s only here, it’s said that it’s safe against the Army of the Eye.”

Nori frowned.  “Army of the Eye?”  

“They’ve been kicking around dark corners of the Multiverse for almost four centuries,” Ori explained.  “They’re more of a cult than an army, but a follower is dangerous, to be sure.”

Ford said nothing, but his shoulders hitched up again.  

“Can you tell me more about this cargo?” Buffi asked.  “And where it’s supposed to arrive?”

“Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it?” Ori grumbled.  “I was supposed to have materialized right there, but that damned wreckage keeps pulling me away!  I was never supposed to have set one foot in your Limbo!”

“Where, then?” Buffi pressed.  

“Arda, of course!” Ori exclaimed.  “Site-to-Site, except in _your_ dimension!”

 

Buffi frowned, and moved past Ford to the control panel of Ori’s holding cell.  She released the force field.  

Ori took a step back.  “What are you doing?”  

“I’m releasing you into my personal custody,” She explained.  “And we’re going to do some more talking.”  She paused for a moment and a whimsical smile crossed her canine features.  “And, in true Khazad fashion, sing a song or two.”


	5. Secret Messages

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Songs, Confrontations, and Resolutions. Oh,and a vampire.

Ori changed into a new set of clothes, though he tugged at the sleeves a bit.  He retained his armored jacket and boots.  His slingshot was confiscated for the moment.  

He frowned as he walked from the Hawk Haven detention center with Kíli.  “Terrans and their tight-fitting fashions,” he muttered.  “It’s the same back home.”

Kíli looked like he was about to comment, but stopped.  

Ori sighed.  “Go ahead. What were you going to say?”

Kíli stammered, “I-I was going to ask if you were still knitting, but…I have no idea if you ever knit…anything.”

Ori smiled the thin smile that Kíli’s Ori smiled.  “Believe it or not, knowing how to knit is an indispensable skill when traversing the Multiverse.”

“I would imagine so,” Kíli replied.  “Ah, Ori.  I can see why you wouldn’t want to have anything to do with this lot.”

Ori frowned.  “How d’you mean?”  The look on Kíli’s face said it all.  Ori nodded.  “You’re trying not to tell me how your Ori died.  It’s all right, Kíli.  If it will make you feel better.”

From the detention center to Birdsmouth, Kíli told Ori about the expedition to Moria, and how Balin, Óin, and their Ori, along with others, had attempted to do there what had been done in Erebor.  

And failed.  

How Glóin’s son, Dœli’s father Gimli, along with the Fellowship had found the remains of that failed expedition, Balin’s tomb and Ori’s body.

Still clutching his journal.

“Scribbling at every detail, I suspect,” Ori quipped.  “Not to be morbid, but I’d like to read that.”

Kíli frowned.  They were at the Birdsmouth bazaar.  The holographic banners overhead were colorful, spring colors in Bed-Laman patterns.  “Let’s have a seat over there until the others join us.”

Ori sat down and put his elbows on the table and laced his hands together.  “You keep going on about Moria, and how I died there.  You haven't said anything about Erebor.”

“What?”

“Erebor, Kee.  The Battle of the Five Armies.”

“I’m…I’m really not the person to ask,” Kíli said, staring at his hands.

“Because I count you, Nori, and Bofur kicking about, and since Balin, Óin and I are…” Ori blew a raspberry, “I think I gotta know who else didn’t make it out alive.”

Kíli continued to look down, and grimaced.  “ _I_ didn’t.”

Ori’s eyebrows raised.  “You seem pretty alive to me.”

“Well I got better, didn’t I?” Kíli said and shakily laughed.  “And Fíli.  He died too.”

Ori looked concerned and his hand reached out to Kíli.  “I’m…I’m sorry.”

Kíli chuckled again and put his hand on Ori’s.  “No, you don’t understand, we _both_ got better.  It was Balin.  He got Gandalf to put us in stasis and spirit our corpses back to Earth.  We got revived there.”

Ori frowned.  “And so you spent—what?—eighty years living among the Terrans?” He asked.

“In this universe, the Federation is benevolent,” Kíli explained.  “And the world, the technology, the opportunity—It’s very seductive.”

“So you joined Starfleet,” Ori said.  “Just like that.”

“Oh no, _not_ just like that!” Kíli exclaimed.  “For months we were blithering and blubbering and having one existential crisis after the other.  Fíli was inconsolable for weeks!”  Kíli held up his hands for emphasis, “He shaved off his beard!”

Ori gasped audibly.  

“Even now,” Kíli told him.  “You would barely recognize him.  Oh, sure he looks the same, but He’s…I dunno…free, you could say.”

“Died and came back and cut all the baggage from his former life, did he?” Ori asked.

Kíli nodded.  “Not me, though.  I envy him that.  I used to be so…so ridiculous when I was a Dwarrow-lad, and coming back made me realize that I had to build something of myself.”

“So what do you do in Starfleet?” Ori asked.

“I work at one of the shipyards,” Kíli explained.  “Out over Antares.”

“A shipbuilder,” Ori said, smiling and shaking his head.  “What would your uncle say to that.”

“Probably the same thing he’d say about my wife,” Kíli replied, looking Ori straight in the eye.  

Ori’s close-set eyes widened.  “ _Her?_   The Elf-captain?”

Kíli nodded.  “When she found out I was alive and working in the Sol system, she managed to get off-world.   She disguised herself as a Vulcan, called T’Rel, and made me look for her all across the North American continent of Earth, and eventually we were wed.”

“Right…that didn’t happen in my universe,” Ori said.  

“I didn’t properly answer your question,” Kíli said, shaking his head.  “Save for Uncle, Balin, Óin, and yourself, the rest of the Company are still alive.  Dwalin’s headed it up, and independent of Erebor and Arda, The Company does mining and other business.  Several Company members have grandchildren now.”

Ori smiled.  “I’m glad.  I don’t know who’s still…”

“I’ve already died once,” Kíli joked.  

“Oh, so who’s…” Ori struggled for the words.  “Why isn’t Fíli on the throne?”

“Dain’s son Thorin, Thorin the Third, is King Under the Mountain,” Kíli explained.  “At the Reunion, Fíli and I both abdicated our right to the Throne.”

 

“This is the part,” Bofur’s voice came from behind Kíli, “where the little prince will tell you that once someone is changed, he can’t go back to the way he was.”  Close to him was Nori.  Ori’s cross-dimensional brother was quiet, but otherwise in good spirits.

“Well, that’s true, isn’t it?” Ori replied.  “Look at me.  Traveling through the Multiverse will put its mark on you.”

“Indeed.”  Ford and Buffi arrived, with Bruffi and Ryon in tow.  Bruffi immediately went up to Ori and smiled.  “Ensign Bruffi K’gar,” he said and stuck out his hand.  “No hard feelings?”

Buffi covered her hound-like snout.  

Ori took Bruffi’s hand and shook it.  “Of course not, Ensign.”

“We’ll be going to Caritas again,” Buffi told the group.  “The Package is going to be delivered quite soon, and I’m sure Lorne is eager to get us out of his hair.”

Kíli and Ori got up and joined them as they made their way down to the docks.  The underside of Hawk Haven was a small docking area, mostly for smaller vessels, but occasionally would hold one that was starship-sized.  Most of the docking ports were located on the ‘wings’ of the station.  The seven of them boarded the Tuscarawas and Buffi and Kíli prepped the runabout for launch.  

Bruffi took the port station, next to Buffi, and Ryon the one next to Fíli.  Ford and the Dwarves settled themselves in the back cabin.  

Ford and Ori began to literally compare notes.  

“I’d found myself in Dimension 52 when attempting to escape a 2-dimensional universe,” Ford was telling Ori.

“Me too!” Ori exclaimed.  “It nearly flattened me!  That’s why She put a plate on my chest!  Oh, but that’s not the strangest place I’ve been.  I’ve been to the Land of Perpetual Wednesday…”

“Ugh.  Just one hump after another,” Ford grumbled.

“Wait, so it’s just Wednesday everyday?” Bofur wondered aloud.

“The crazy Melty Land,” Ori continued.

“Like a Dali painting come to life,” Ford explained.

“And, of course,” Ori said.

“The M Dimension!” Ford exclaimed

“The World Without Shrimp!” Ori finished.

“What?” Ford said, 

“Huh?” Ori said.

 

“L-Let me get this straight,” Bofur asked.  “There’s a dimension out there that is bereft of seafood?”

Ori nodded.

“And I don’t even want to know what an ‘M Dimension’ is,” Bofur continued.

“There’s also the Land of the Trolls,” Ford said, quickly.  Ori nodded.

“So _that’s_ where they went,” Bofur said.

“And that’s not even counting the infinite number of quantum realities that are created by each decision that’s made by trillions of individuals!” Ford exclaimed.

“So why did you leave your home?” Nori asked Ori.  

Ori looked at his not-brother.  “I’ve mentioned the Army of the Eye.”

“Right, you did,” Nori agreed.  “But you have to understand, It hasn’t been that long in this universe that Sauron was defeated.”

Ori frowned, then shook his head.  “I can see how you’d think that, but It’s not the Red Eye.”

Ford began to freeze up.  “No,” he whispered.

“It’s the Yellow Eye.”

 

 

***

 

 

 

When they arrived on Fence this time, Caritas was closed.  Or at least not open to the public.  Lorne had them enter from the service entrance and so Buffi led them to the rear doorway.  Ori and Ford looked apprehensive, sizing up the area.  Buffi didn’t blame them.  It was more than a few times that she’d had to fight enemies outside the sanctuary spell that Lorne had over his home.  

“I don’t suppose the two of you have had to fight vampires,” Buffi asked them.

Ford frowned.  Ori narrowed his eyes.  “Have…you?” he asked back.

Buffi only turned and smiled at them as the door opened.  Lorne appeared, in a purple suit, and wearing the most flamboyant pair of glasses Buffi had ever seen.  

“Ah!  Yes, come on in…” Lorne said, clearing the doorway after checking outside.  “So, I confirmed my suspicions,” he continued, leading them through the labyrinth of his private chambers, “That J’Hessel is a reference to one of the Oracles to the Powers That Be…”

“Jhesselbraum the Unswerving,” Ford replied.  

“From Dimension 52,” Ori added.

Lorne threw up his hands.  “ _So_ glad I wasted my time.”

“Ohhh,” Buffi said, putting her arm around Lorne’s shoulder.  “I appreciate it all the same.  What’s on your face, exactly?”

Kíli grinned.  “Where is the old bugger?” 

“Huh?” Ori said.

“Kee!”  A voice called in the distance.

“FEE!” Kíli called back, and trotted ahead of the group.  

Buffi, Lorne and Ford entered Caritas’s main floor to find Kíli grasping the arms of his brother Fíli.  Fíli was in civilian clothes, a brown shirt with a tawny fur trim.  Leather bracers with gold trim attached to his trousers and matched his boots.  

“You wouldn’t believe the week I’m having,” Kíli told his brother, and their foreheads touched.

“Is he here?” Fíli asked. “Have you run…”  He noticed Buffi off to the side and was about to greet her warmly when he noticed Ford beside her.

“Stanley!” he exclaimed.  “I thought you were…” And then he stopped.  Noticed the different spectacles with the cracked lens, and the cleft chin.  The Hair that puffed up a little differently, and he realized.

“Oh,” Fíli said, flatly.  “The _brother_.”

“Have you and my…?” Ford began.

Fíli cut him off with an impatient noise.  “I will deal with _you_ later,” He said, darkly, then brightened when he turned back to Buffi.  “Commander K’gar!”

The tension between Ford and Fíli wasn’t lost on Buffi but she smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.  “It’s good to see you, Doctor.  I’m glad you could get here.”

“Captain Reid asked yet another favor of me, and since the first one paid off in dividends,” Fíli said, glancing once again at Ford, “I was happy to do him another solid.  Someone was needed to keep an eye on M’ret’s vitals once he was in custody.”

Buffi nodded.  “You and Kíli should also work on masking his bio-signs for when we’re in transit.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard,” Fíli said.  

It was then that he noticed Ori.

“Oh,” was all he managed.  He walked over to him, arms at his side and looked Ori directly in the eyes.  

“Fee,” Ori said.  

Fíli wrapped his arms around Ori, who seemed too surprised to react.  He stared outward while Fíli buried his face in Ori’s shoulder.  He sobbed silently for a moment.  

“Fíli…” Ori tried to say.  His eyes began to burn with tears. 

“No, just…please.” Fíli said, still holding Ori tight.  Finally he disengaged and grasped Ori’s shoulders.  “From another universe?” He asked.

Ori nodded.

“Not a clone?  Not a…” Fíli trailed off.  His expression hardened.  “Because if you’re a clone—Did Nathuntarj confirm this?” He said over his shoulder to Buffi and Kíli.

“His quantum resonance is not of this universe,” Kíli confirmed.  “Dr. Nat confirmed he was not a clone.”

Ori smiled awkwardly.  “I should be a little offended,” He said. 

Fíli nodded, sniffled and chuckled.  “Yes, yes, I’d imagine so.  It’s just…”  Tears streamed down his cheeks again.  “I read your journals— _his_ journals, I should say—Not even a week ago.”

“Ori?” Buffi called.  “Doctor I’m sorry, but in order to complete our mission, we have to help Ori complete his.”

Fíli nodded.  He had his own work to do, and a Dwarf always had an axe to grind.  Glaring at Ford, he moved back to Kíli, who was speaking with Bruffi and Dœli.  

“Young K’gar,” he addressed Bruffi.  “Cousin.”

Dœli greeted Fíli with her forehead as well.  Fíli smiled.  “My young lady.”

 

Ori joined Buffi and Lorne on the stage.  Ori began to sing in Khuzdul, about the days of the halls in Erebor.  To Bruffi it seemed very sad.  Lorne put a hand to his forehead.  

 

“Doctor.” Fíli turned to see Stanford Pines and Ryon McGucket behind him.  Bofur and Nori moved past the conflict brewing to sit before the stage. 

“No.  Not here,” Fíli hissed.  He grabbed Ford’s jacket sleeve and pulled him back into the back corridor.  He stopped in front of the restroom entrance and roughly released Ford.

“Now, look here—“ Ford began, but the Dwarf slammed him against the wall.

“Do you know what you have _done_?!” Fíli hollered at Ford.   “Your brother Stanley—a man out of his time, in a strange world, everyone he ever knew _centuries_ _dead_!  You wanted to keep him safe, or so you told our young Captain, but did you ever take Stan’s feelings into consideration?  Did you take his fear, his loneliness, his isolation into your equations, Dr. Pines?”  Tears began to form in Fíli’s eyes.  

“I don’t expect you to understand—“Ford began.

“Oh, I _understand_.  I get it.  I get _you_ , Doctor,” Fíli said, bitterly.  “Do you think it was only _Ori’s_ journals that I’ve been reading since I left Earth for here?”

Ford stiffened.  

“I’ll forgive a youngster’s hubris and ego, because I’ve been young and arrogant,” Fíli told Ford.  “Even toward their own kin.  To a point.  Because, y’see, I had to make a choice once between glory and _my_ brother.  And I chose _him_.  Because that’s where I belonged.

Ford appeared visibly deflated.  

“So whatever your plans, your schemes are, you are to do right by that man from here on out.  Are we _clear_?”

Ford looked Fíli right in the eye.  “Yes we are.”

“Pleasure working with you,” Fíli said, and stalked away.  

 

Now it was Kíli’s turn to frown at Ford as the two reentered the club space. However, he kept his distance from the Terran, instead turning his eyes to Ori on stage.  Fíli joined him soon enough.

“You all right?  I heard shouting,” He said to his brother.

“I’m…fine,” Fíli replied.

“So, the Stanley you talked about and Dr. Pines are twin brothers,” Kíli noted.  “Kit and Kat, Emily and Will…we sure know our share of them, don’t we?”

Fíli said nothing.

“You’re really upset,” Kíli said.  “I didn’t realize Stanley meant so much to you.”

“It just struck a chord, is all,” Fíli sighed, and explained.  “One miserable mistake keeps two brothers apart, sets them down two very different paths.  They’re in danger in different ways, and when they reunite, they’re too in their own pain to realize, and then…”

Kíli took his brother’s hand.  “I’m here, Fee.  “ _We’re_ here, and we’re all right.”

Fíli put his other hand over Kíli’s.  “We turned out all right, didn’t we.”

“Even _Amad_ eventually came around,” Kíli reminded Fíli.  

“I think explaining to the Lady Dís that we were still alive was easier than explaining why we gave up the Throne,” Fíli mused.  “The next time we go home, we owe _Amad_ a visit.”

Kíli nodded.

Ori finished on the stage.  Lorne’s brow furrowed, causing his red horns to droop a bit.  “Pupkins, I think I’m gonna need to get a performance out of you, just to triangulate a few things,” he told Buffi.  

Buffi shrugged.  “What do you want?” She asked him.  “Pop or Diva?”

Lorne waved a hand dismissively at her.  “Surprise me.”

She slyly replied, “Don’t I always.”

 

Buffi K’gar didn’t really advertise her special gifts.  The one ability she had was inherent to the Cainian species, which was a throwback to their genetic ancestors pack mentality.  But this was something that was passed down through the generations in her family.  Not quite telepathy, but something similar.  By now all of her friends and acquaintances, Bofur and Nori included, were used to the fact that sometimes in her presence they could perceive music or some kind of sound, but with no source.  

Buffi was the transmitter.

 

So when the music started, imagine Ori and Ford’s surprise—especially Ford’s surprise—when they realized it was inside their own heads.

 

_I can't help it if I make a scene_

_Stepping out of my hot pink limousine_

_I'm turning heads and I'm stopping traffic_

_When I pose, they scream_

_And when I joke, they laugh_

 

Fíli and Kíli remembered many an MC9 undercover mission where Buffi was a performer and music just appeared around her.  It all seemed so easy for her, mostly because she wasn't quite aware of what she was doing.  Now, however, she seemed to be in very tight control of her power.  

 

_I've got a pair of eyes that they're getting lost in_

_They're hypnotized by the way I’m walking_

_I've got them dazzled like a stage magician_

_When I point, they look_

_And when I talk, they listen_

 

Bofur and Nori remembered her putting in a performance with her Turtle-lads back during the Reunion.  Bofur recalled that in a rare moment of lucidity, Bifur had spoken aloud his approval.  To say nothing of Bombur’s children’s enthusiastic response!  Nori recalled that Dori didn’t stop humming whatever tune Buffi and the Turtles had performed for weeks afterward.

She had a knack for catchy tunes.

 

_Well, everybody needs a friend_

_And I've got you, and you, and you_

_So many I can't even name them!_

_Can you blame me? I'm too famous!_

 

Ford frowned at Buffi, his hand scratching his head and randomly tapping at his own cranium.  This got Buffi’s attention.  Hopping down from the stage, she moved her way toward Ford and decided to serenade him a bit.

 

_Haven't you noticed that I'm a star?_

_I'm coming into view as the world is turning_

_Haven't you noticed I've made it this far?_

_Now everyone can see me burning,_

_Now everyone can see me burning,_

_Now everyone can see me burning…_

 

“Ms. K’gar,” Ford began.  “You seem to have an…extra talent of which I was not previously aware.”

Buffi suddenly seemed to be self-conscious.  “Oh!  Doctor, I am so sorry, I genuinely forgot you didn’t know!”  The pop diva persona evaporated, and Buffi put a hand on Ford’s arm.  “I would never blast silly pop music into your brain without your consent.”

“I’ve endured worse,” Ford assured her.  “However, I’m not sure how you were able to make the connection at all.  The metal piece I had implanted was designed to prevent unwanted mental attack.”

“There’s a reason, but I won’t bore you,” Buffi said.  “Lorne?”

Ori looked on with suspicion, but remained silent.  Lorne waved for them both to join him in conference.  He and Buffi sat down.

“Ori needs to get his cargo delivered.  So do you, Buffi.  If Ori’s right about this Army of the Eye, and my readings are correct, then Caritas isn’t sanctuary enough for the both of you.  Buffi, your cargo has a great big bullseye on it from the get-go, but I have an idea that will get the both of you where you need to go.”

 

 

***

 

 

“Well?” Buffi asked.

“Don’t have all day,” Ori added.

“Ri-i-i-ght,” Lorne said.  “Kind of hoping for a dramatic entrance just then.” 

 

“Is this on?” Bofur said, tapping at the microphone on stage.  He’d just entered in his song, at Nori’s urging.

 

“Okay, after four!” Bofur said to Nori as he took his place by the microphone.

“FOUR!”

 

And as the two sang their Honky-Tonk jam, and as Ford moved closer to Lorne than Fíli and Kíli, another person wandered in.  

“This a private party?” He asked.  He was dressed in a colorful shirt, with white trousers.  He was stocky, with close-cropped golden hair.  He looked on at Bofur and Nori’s singing with pale blue eyes.

The faces of half the room lit up, as Buffi got up and hugged him.

“Josh!” she exclaimed.

“Cap’n!” Ryon piped up, and he and Dœli quickly moved toward him.

Captain Joshua M. Reid-LeBeau beamed at all of them.  “I see you all’ve been keeping busy with your assignment,” he teased.  

“Lorne?” Buffi called over her shoulder to the Host and Ori, who suddenly looked horrified, as if he’d made a sudden realization.  He wandered over to Kíli.

“ _He’s_ the one who…?”  He asked.

Kíli nodded solemnly.

Ori walked up, past Ryon and Dœli, past Buffi, right up to Josh.  “Ori, at your service,” he said.

Josh looked confused, but still friendly.  “And to you and your house,” He correctly responded.  “Have we met?”

“Not in life,” Ori replied.  “The Ori from this universe…you helped bring him home.”

The smile on Josh’s face began to fade.  “Oh.”  He knelt down on one knee, and looked up at Ori.  “The honor was mine.  It must be a helluva story to bring you here.”

Ori nodded.  

Bofur and Nori continued to rock out on stage.  Josh glanced at them, got up, and brought his attention back to Buffi.  “So what’s your plan?”

Lorne spoke up.  “All you need to know, Shooting Star,”—At this Ford perked up— “Is to tell Adam to divert to Brim*Star when he arrives in Limbo.”

“Is that where we’re going?” Buffi asked. 

“We need to make a few more calls, first.”

 

 

Over the years since Mon*Star was destroyed, The rightful owner of Brim*Star only brightened the aesthetic of the stronghold slightly.  However, the assemblage of pipes and steam around a castle-like building remained mostly intact.  The bubble of atmosphere around the structure within the planetoids massive star-shaped crater allowed the _Tuscarawas_ and Joshua’s runabout, the _Anduin_ , on loan from the Haven, to soft-land and exit onto the area in front of the entrance.  

Greeting them was a large man clad in orange armor.  Fur trim stuck out around his neck.  The armor was inscribed with ancient phrases, meant to keep evil out.  His hair was black, and lush.  As he turned to gaze upon them, Ford noticed the eyepatch hat covered his right eye had similar incantations upon it, as well as a pentacle.  

“Two of three,” the man said to them.  “If the third had arrived, I should be concerned.”

“He’ll be along, shortly,” Josh told him.  “How have you been Gomphor?”

Gomphor the Orange shrugged and genuflected.  “Penance is always hard work, young one.  For me and the ones that Mon*Star enslaved.”

“Have the pieces arrived?” Buffi asked, getting right to the point.  She walked past Gomphor into the stronghold, with the Dwarves right behind her.  All but Ori.  He gazed at Gomphor reverentially.

“Thank you Pallando, for your kindness,” Ori told him.  Gomphor regarded Ori with curiosity.

“Now that’s a name I haven’t used in a long time.  I was clad in blue then.  How do you know Pallando the Blue?”

“In my universe, it was you that helped the Company get to the Lonely Mountain,” Ori explained.  “I’m glad that it’s you to help me take…” Ori didn’t finish his thought, and hurried inside.  

“That’s Ms. K’gar taken care of.  I suppose you’ve come to talk to me about the Initiative,” Gomphor said, returning to Josh.

“You speak of penance,” Josh replied.  “And so have some of th’ other Limbo boys.  What if you could do more than remember that you were once villains?  What if you had a chance to be protectors of the people in Limbo?  To do more than to protect people against your mistakes?”

“Let’s help Buffi and her Dwarves, and see how that works out.  Then I will give you my answer.”

 

In a circular room within the center of the fortress, Ford and Ori looked upon the pieces as Ryon inspected each fragment. He flitted from piece to piece, checking each section off on his PADD.

Ori looked up at Ford and thought he looked profoundly sad.

“You built this?” He asked Ford.

“I partly designed it…or was given the design…it’s not quite certain anymore.  Fiddleford helped me build it.  He warned me not to finish it in the end, but I didn’t listen.  He was harmed by it,” Ford squeezed his eyes shut, and Ryon looked over his shoulder toward him.  

“I was tricked, you see,” Ford explained.  “This device was never meant to travel to other dimensions.”

“No?” Ori said, absently.  He watched Ryon resume his work.  

“It was ultimately designed to make contact with the Nightmare Realm—what some have referred to as the Void.”

Ori turned and glared up at him.  “There is only _death_ in the Void!” he exclaimed.  “Who told you to do that?”

Ford looked down at Ori.  “He called himself Bill Cipher.”

Ori continued to stare at him, but let Ford continue.

“My investigations came across the way to summon him.  He infiltrated my subconscious and I called him a Muse.  It was too late before I realized that he was a demon.”

“You weren’t the only one,” Ori said.  “The Army of the Yellow Eye is filled with devotees who gave their lives away for him.”

“But don’t they _know_?” Ford asked.  “Don’t they know that he’s destroyed?”

“It doesn’t _matter_ what the truth is!” Ori said scoffing.  “He’s only the _excuse_ to do evil, not the _cause_.  They can do whatever they want throughout the Multiverse, as long as they can justify it to their false god.  They raised an army in the false hope that somewhere, in someone’s head, Bill Cipher’s trapped.”  Ori chuckled and looked back up at Ford.  “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near _that_ fellow’s head for all the gold in Erebor!”

 

Before Ford was able to respond, Buffi stepped into the chamber.  “Do you know what used to be in here before, Doc?” she said, unprompted.  

“I’m not sure I do,” Ford replied, a grateful look on his face at having been interrupted.

“Mon*Star’s transformation chamber.  There used to be this throne with these metallic fingers that would encircle him before the MoonStar’s radiation would trigger his transformation from a beast to an _armored_ beast,” Buffi explained.  

“It was here that Adam, Josh, and Buffi had their final confrontation against Mon*Star and figured out how to drive Him out of me,” Gomphor added.  “Even to this day, I wear these wards against His ever trying to betray the trust of the Order.”

Ford looked confused.  “It seems as if the three of you are linked inexorably,” He told Buffi.

“Even when we’re servin’ other ships, we still manage to bang into each other,” Josh sighed and stepped next to Buffi.  “Sometimes, the brass ask for us by name.”

“Let’s pick a new topic,” Buffi told Josh through gritted teeth.  

Josh held his hands up.  “All right.  So what’s supposed to happen next.”

Ori circled the triangular parts of the Portal, arranged in the center of the chamber.  He walked into the round center.  “If all of our calculations are correct, the cargo will materialize here.”

“And then what?” Ford asked Ori.

Nori and Bofur were close by, and Ori didn’t notice Nori next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.  “You could stay.  We could take you to Dori, explain it all.  He’d take you in like you was _our_ Ori.  You won’t have to wander any more.”

Ori nodded.  “I still have a few more duties to perform.  But, yeah.  We want to make this our home.  It’s not always nice back where I come from.  K’gar knows.  Don’t you, Commander?”

Buffi looked at her feet for a few moments.  “No.  It’s not.”

Fíli and Kíli looked at each other and mouthed, “Our?”

 

“Ahh,” a voice drawled.  “It’s not always hospitable, but it’s still home.”

A lean figure appeared at the doorway.  He wore a long leather coat and steel-toed boots.  His hair was blue and shaved on the sides.  His eyes were a predatory yellow and his face had a bestial look to them.  long canine teeth stuck from behind his lips. 

A vampire.

“This is quite a collection of Dwarves,” the vampire addressed Ori.  “And who is _this_?” He turned his attention to Ford.  “Why, it’s IQ in the flesh!” 

“Who is this?” Gomphor asked.

Before Ori could speak, Buffi answered for him.  “It’s Adam Reid.”

Josh gave Buffi a funny look.  “No-o-o-o…?”

“Not _our_ Adam,” Buffi explained.  “In the other universe, there was never a line of descendants from your Old Adam.  He was…well, look.”

“Wait, what?”  the Adam-vampire exclaimed.  He moved fast—faster than Josh could react to, and before he realized what had happened, the vampire was scrutinizing him up close.

“Are you saying that in this universe I had some kind of inkling of heterosexuality?” he wondered.  Then he laughed, an ugly, animalistic laugh.  “This is fascinating.  It’s almost tempting to ask more questions instead of killing you all!”

He looked at Josh, with a self-satisfied smirk.  “Almost.”

The vampire was thrown all the way across the chamber with a flash of light.  He hit a control valve with his head as he landed backwards to the ground.  

Before he had time to shake the ringing out of his head, he was hauled up by his lapels and smashed against the wall.  Green-eyed fury stared at him with a pair of canines that rivaled his own.

“You really aren’t from around here, are you?” Buffi K’gar growled at him. 

“Intendant!” the vampire exclaimed.  “It’s been ages since you’ve beaten me up properly, I’d nearly forgotten what it was like to have a decent conversation with you.”

“You know I’m not the Intendant,” Buffi told Old Adam.  “You know what happened to her.  You were there.  You were there the day I _killed_ her.”

Ori gasped. “ _You_ killed her?”

“Another time, maybe!” Josh cried from across the chamber.  

“No matter.  I’m just the first one across,” Old Adam said, chuckling.  It was then that Buffi noticed the one solitary button pinned to his coat.  

A yellow trianglular figure with a single eye in its center.

“I’ve seen that before,” Buffi said.

“And you’ll see it again,” Old Adam promised.  “Ladies, Gentlemen, It’s official.”

He took a singular square device from his pocket and pressed a button.  

“The Army of the Yellow Eye is upon you now.”

With that, he disappeared in a flash of white light.  

Not soon after, a blueish glow came from the center of the remains of the Portal. White noise washed over them.

“It’s coming!” Ori exclaimed.  He whipped out his dimensional shifter and pressed a side button upon it.  “I have to let them know that we’re receiving it!”

Josh and Buffi converged toward the area with Gomphor.  The Dwarves looked on expectantly.  Ford looked behind Ryon, who wielded a tricorder.  “Increased tetryon activity from the point of emergence,” He reported, and looked over his shoulder to Ford.  “That’s what my name’s short for, you know.”

“It’s good to know your family kept the tradition,” Ford replied.  

The center of the chamber became awash in white light as a form began to emerge.  “Just a few more moments!” Ori cried.

Gomphor raised his staff, a metallic length with a five-pointed orange flourish at the top end.  He muttered a few words, and for a moment, his eyes darkened.  “There.  That will protect this room from any more incursions.”

With a final white flash, the dimensional shift was complete.  The Portal was once again inert.  

What remained was a box.  

“Fíli!” Ori exclaimed.  “Your medical tricorder, please!”

Fíli’s eyebrows were raised as he circled the box.  It was yellowish in color, and had controls on both side.  There was some piping on the backside, but some means to look inside on the front.  

“There is a life form in medical stasis,” Fíli reported.  “Stasis field is stable.  Stasis field operating status…By Mahal, they’ve been in stasis for _eighty-five years_?”

Fíli kept scanning the box.  “Khazad, male…approximately two hundred years…old.  Josh?”

Josh walked up to the doctor.  “What d’you need, Doc?”

“Take this.  Finish the scans.  I must recuse myself.”

Josh shrugged, and continued the scans.  

Fíli walked up to Ori.  “The _Mediterranean_ is on her way.  I’m confident that Dr. Ch’tra can revive this individual…”

Ori shook his head.  “Arrangements have already been made.  I’ve scouted ahead far longer than you realize.”

Fíli squeezed his eyes shut and exhaled through his nose.  “Very well.”

 

It was then that Buffi’s comm badge crackled to life.  “This is a secure channel.  Team B to Team A,” Bruffi’s voice came through.  He was speaking from Brim*Star’s cargo area.

“Go ahead, Ensign,” Buffi said.

“The package has been delivered.  Awaiting securing cargo.”

“Excellent work,” Buffi said.  I think we’ll be on our way soon.”

“Understood.  Team B out.”

Fíli quickly took his tricorder back.  “I’m on my way.  Kee?”

Kíli trotted after his brother.  “We’ll get the Vice-proconsul ready to transport within the hour, Commander, Captain!” 

“Very good, gentlemen,” Buffi sighed, and leaned against the wall.

“How’s that timetable of yours?” Josh asked.

“No such thing as a simple mission,” Buffi grumbled.  

“Nope,” Josh agreed.  “You still have to get M’ret to that secure location, though, and Lorne all but confirmed that your best buddy across the Neutral Zone has got a bullseye on him.”

“I’ve got a plan for that, and I need yours and Ori’s help as well,” Buffi told him.

 

Josh smiled and nodded.  “I’m game.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs from this chapter:
> 
> "Haven't You Noticed (I'm A Star)" Written by Rebecca Sugar and Performed by Olivia Olsen, Kate Minucci, and Zach Callison for "Steven Universe"  
> "Four Little Diamonds" Written by Jeff Lynne and performed by Electric Light Orchestra.


	6. After All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission is almost accomplished, and it's time to deliver.

Ford shuffled his feet as the pieces of the Portal were being bundled up for transport back to Ruka’s warehouse.  Bruffi, Doeli, and Ryon were efficient as they began moving the pieces and, one by one, each piece disappeared in a transporter beam.  He was tapping on his PADD, making notes, documenting everything, as he did.  

Ori continued to talk to Nori and Bofur, making plans for his own cargo.  Ford took notice when Nori wrapped his arms around Ori in a hug, tears squeezed from the corners of his eyes, down into his intricately braided beard.  

Ford sighed.

“I’m sure you can’t relate.”

Ford located the voice from his lower right side.  

It was Dr. Fíli.

“Doctor, let’s not part as adversaries,” Ford said.  “I realize how much you care for Stanley.”

“And I know how much you care for him as well.  I’m sorry for my outburst back there.”

“My journals were supposed to simply document the strange phenomena I was witnessing in Oregon,” Ford explained to Fíli.  “I didn’t realize at the time how much of my—how did you say it?—‘hubris and ego’—had leaked onto the pages.  I must have come across as quite the asshole.”

Fíli quietly nodded.  “When I visited with your brother, He was all but ready to search you out,” He told Ford.  “He said he _had_ to.”  Ford frowned until Fíli added, “I suggested he _not_.  I also suggested he not stay on Earth.”

Ford snorted.  “No, I suppose the planet that Earth’s become wouldn’t appeal to him.”

“I told him that his life going forward shouldn’t revolve around you, that he was responsible for his own path going forward, and now I’m going to say it to you.  You are not the other half of your twin, Stanford.”

“But I’m the one who—“

“That’s the past, Doctor.  The past is the past, and you can either let it lay in the dust behind you, or you will carry it along with you for decades to come, weighing you down.  We remember the past, such as I and Kíli do, but we work toward creating a future for ourselves.”

Ford said nothing.  “I’m starting to think that taking the Cerebean Cure was unwise.”

“A good friend of mine took the Cerebean Cure, at the age of 129 years,” Fíli explained.  “His life was disrupted in ways that we didn’t realize, in ways that we could not hope to rectify.”  Fíli sighed.  “In taking him from his home, we helped him to find untapped potential, but we also broke his heart.  So,” Fíli continued, “When the word came, to find basically the cure to old age, I passed my findings back along, and not too much later, he looked half his age!  …Where was I going with this?”

“You were telling me not to live in the past before telling a tale of regaining one’s youth,” Ford said, with a smile.

“Yes, well.” Fíli said, and winked at Ford.  “You might as well look good while you do it.  But no.  It was…and I suspect it was for you and Stanley as well…a way to apologize for the previous thirty years, by taking them off your face.  Am I out of line?”

By then all the pieces of the Portal had been removed, and Buffi and Josh were coming into view, as was Kíli.  “No, Doctor.  You’re right.  Because, you see, the words never seemed like enough.”

Fíli patted Ford’s arm.  “You give words too little credit.  If you say the right ones, it’s literally magic.”

Buffi beckoned Fíli over toward the chamber entrance. He trotted away from Ford to join them.

“We’ve got word from Erebor on Arda that they’re waiting for this,” Buffi told Kíli.  “You’ve been invited, along with Kíli and the surviving members of the Company.”

“I am ethically unable to revive him,” Fíli said.  

“No.  It’s gonna be a joint effort between Dr. Ch’tra and Dr. Nat,” Josh agreed.  “We wouldn’t ask that of you.”

“Thank you,” Fíli said with a short sigh.  “Well, M’ret’s vitals are strong and he’s ready for the trip.  I’ve also made the modifications to the stasis chamber so that his life signs are masked.”

“We, um, have a request to make of you,” Buffi stepped in.  “There is one thing you can do for the other stasis chamber, without stepping over your ethical responsibilities.”

Fíli frowned.  “What’s that?”

 

Ford moved away from earshot of that conversation, turned and nearly collided into Gomphor.  “Oh!  my apologies!”

Gomphor looked serenely down on Ford, nearly a head shorter than he.  “You didn’t need to steal it.”

“I…”

“ _You_ steal, had the _Dwarves_ steal, it’s all semantics,” Gomphor continued.  “I have no interest in these things other than their use for a higher good.  Luckily for _you_.”

Ford gulped.

“So consider all charges dropped.  Even though, by most accounts, New Zealand is a lovely place to be imprisoned.”

“Will you help me get to the next stage of my plan?” Ford asked Gomphor.

Gomphor smiled and gazed serenely down on Ford.  A beat passed and he added.  “I’m winking from behind my eyepatch.”

Just as Ford was about to respond, He felt a hand clap upon his shoulder.  “Doc!  Just the man I wanted to talk to.”  It was Joshua, the other Reid Captain.  “The little bearded guys were telling me that you were planning to go to Arda, to visit Minas Tirith, is that right?”

Ford smiled tentatively and replied. “That was, erm, contingent on finding a few more data receptacles.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that.  I think I can scrounge you up a few of those. I mean, Adam has the dagger of Earendil in storage on Dolare and I’m sure there’s a few other folks that’ll loan them to me…Right, big guy?”

Gomphor’s smile broadened as he kept his eye on Ford.  “I think we can see ourselves through to an arrangement.”

“That’s all well and good, Captain, but I’m fairly certain that what I have planned would create a conflict of interest with you and your Starfleet duties.” Ford told Josh.

Josh grinned.  “Well the fact of the matter is….I don’t have a ship right now!  I got booted off the _Tomcat_ , and my crew have been scattered higgledy piggledy, save for Doeli and McGucket over there, and any plan that is sure to annoy the Prince of Ithilien is one that I would like to be in on.”

Ford smiled at that, and leaned toward Josh conspiratorially.  “Then this will be right up your alley.”

 

On the other side of the chamber, Buffi sighed.  Kíli did as well.  The two looked at each other.  Buffi smiled.  “Hell of a simple mission, huh.”

“No such creature,” Kíli replied.  “I suppose you’ve called the Bagginses.”

Buffi nodded.  “When I reported to the _Medi_ , Adam assured me that everyone would be notified to the situation.”

Kíli beckoned the Cainian to sit next to him.  “So what have you made of all this?” He asked her.  “We don’t talk about that time, but I know you.”

Buffi folded her hands in her lap as she sat next to Kíli   “You and I, we grew up with a little bit of privilege,” She began.  You with your family in exile, and me and Bruffi on Earth.”

Kíli nodded.  “True,” he said.  “That’s why I like the lad as much as I do; he reminds me of myself, a bit.”

Buffi smiled, and sighed.  “I was supposed to work with him a lot closer than we did,” she admitted.  “I was hoping to find out what kind of young man he’s become.”

The Dwarf patted Buffi on the knee.  “I can tell you that he’s bright, resourceful, and confident in his ability,” he assured her.  “I allowed him to take point as much as I could on this mission and he didn’t hesitate.  You have nothing to worry about.”

“It’s not about that, exactly,” Buffi said.  “He’s my little brother and…he’s all grown up.”  She wiped at her eyes.  “When did that happen?”

Fíli sat down on the other side of Buffi with a thump.  “When you least expect it, your brother will become their own person,” he said to her.

“See, that’s what Bilbo didn’t write about,” Buffi said.  “Fíli, you were going to be the next in line to the throne in Erebor.  You took that so seriously.”

Fíli nodded.

“And Kíli, you were next after him, but you were so happy-go-lucky and free.”

Kíli nodded in turn.

Buffi exhaled.  “And then the two of you… _died_.  So when it comes to you and the Company and your uncle, I never knew how to broach the subject.  It’s like you always say about being changed.”

“Oh?” Fíli prompted.

“You two seemed _so_ changed, that those old lives and those old associations felt as alien to you as they did to me.  So to ask you about them seemed too awkward.”

Fíli chuckled as he leaned on the Cainian.  “Oh, Buffi, you can be the sweetest lass when you want to.”

Kíli did likewise on her other side.  “I think you’ve earned the right to ask us anything you want about us, Erebor, the Battle, Uncle—any of it.”

“It’s just…” Fíli added.  “We know you don’t want to talk about Celtris III anymore.  Or that man that done you wrong.”

Buffi’s breath hitched.

“A story for a story; that’s the Dwarves’ way,” Fíli finished.  

Buffi’s smile began to fade.  “I’ll promise you this,” she told them as she got back up.  “I won’t wait eighty years to unburden myself.  But soon.”

The three of them looked over to Ford and Josh.  “Speaking of,” Buffi said, “Think he and _his_ brother’ll get it together any time soon?”

“They’d _better_ ,” Fíli replied, contentiously.  “I suppose the two of you are anxious to reunite with your significant others.”

“This one tells me the honeymoon’s still ongoing,” Kíli told his brother, causing Buffi’s ears to turn pink.  “Not that _you’d_ relate to anything so domestic.”

“Well, you never know,” Fíli replied.  “There’s a few candidates out there.”

It was then that Buffi’s comm badge chirped.  “Commander K’gar,” Bruffi reported, “ _Tuscarawas_ is loaded and ready for pre-launch.”

Buffi tapped her badge.  “Acknowledged,” she replied and left the chamber.  

 

 

The _Tuscarawas_ was soon underway and headed toward an interior starbase, roughly twenty light-years from Limbo. 

 

It didn’t quite get the chance to make it there.

About three hours into her flight, a Romulan scout ship decloaked behind the _Tusc_.    Blood-green, like the larger Warbirds, it was nonetheless equipped with more weapons than the standard runabout.  Fortunately, the runabout had much better maneuverability. 

 

Dr. Fíli continued to monitor the stasis chamber, even as the runabout ducked disruptor fire.  

“Prepare to be boarded,” a familiar female voice told them over the comm.  

Kíli frowned, and reached for his staff.  “She’ll not get this cargo!”

 

Commander Sela appeared in the cockpit, disruptor in hand.  “Commander K’gar,” She began, almost pleasantly.

“Actually,” The male Cainian in the co-pilot seat spoke up, “It’s Ensign K’gar.”

Sela frowned momentarily, before regaining her smug smile.  “Wherever is your sister, Ensign?  This is her operation after all.”

“This operation, Commander,” the male voice of the runabout pilot spoke up, “Has been switched up.”

Captain Joshua Reid-LeBeau stood up, causing Sela to point the disruptor right at him.  He casually put up his hands. “Commander Sela, I don’t think we’ve had the privilege of actually meeting, have we?”

“Perhaps not, Captain, but I assure you our intelligence on you is _quite_ thorough,” Sela replied.  “No matter.  I’ll be along with M’ret, and you can go on your way.”

“Muh-who, now?”  Josh asked.

“There’s no need to insult my intelligence, Captain,” Sela purred.  “We tracked the runabout from the contact point on Brim*Star, and our scans of your cargo gave us the faint trace of a Romulan in stasis.”

“This is the first I’ve heard of this,” Josh said.  “Why don’t we all go and check this out together?”

“This is an interesting stalling tactic you have comprised,” Sela said.  “But I’ll indulge you.  You may walk ahead of me, and I assure you any tricks will be met with fatal force.”

“No tricks,” Josh assured Sela.  “Pinball or otherwise.”

“Eh?”

“Never mind.  Let’s go.”

Josh kept his hands up as they walked through the narrow corridor that linked the cockpit to the back cabin.  In addition to the cargo holds on the side of the runabout, there was also access hatches to the miniature warp core located on the top of the ship.  Sela was very smart to keep him in check in this area; any false move and she could have the ship destroyed and beamed away to safety in an instant.  Josh assumed that there was a transporter lock on her at that very moment to yank her away at the soonest sign of treachery.  

“All right, here’s the stasis chamber,” He told her.

“You may open it, Captain,” Sela ordered.

Josh nodded, and with one hand still held up, he pressed the release control.

The stasis pod was revealed.  

“What is this.” Sela said, not quite asking a question.  

“That is, what we in the business of hoodwinkery like to call the old ‘bait-and-switch’,” Josh replied.  

The individual within the stasis pod was not M’Ret.

He was not even Romulan.

It was a handsome-looking Khazad Dwarf, like Fíli and Kíli, who shared their prominent nose. He appeared to be peacefully asleep, though his face seemed to be marred with cuts and scars.  His hair was dark with some streaks of grey, not unlike Kíli’s, and it spilled all around his face.

“Commander,” a voice from Sela’s comm device reported, “We have a Starfleet ship bearing down on us, mark 332!”

“To more precisely answer your question, Commander?” Dr. Fíli interjected.

“This is our kin,” Kíli growled, pressing the control on his staff that turned it into a bow.  

“Thorin the Second, Oakenshield,” Fíli said, brandishing a small blade.

“And we’re willing to die a second time to protect him from _you_ ,” Kíli finished.  

Sela turned from the Dwarves back to Josh, whose hand had begun to emit an orange glow.  “I’ll take that disruptor now, Commander,” He told her.  “And incidentally, I’m fairly certain that the Mediterranean has scrambled your transporter lock.”

She angrily dropped her weapon.  “M’ret is already safely in Starfleet hands, isn’t he,” Sela surmised, addressing the Dwarves.  “You were willing to use your kin as a decoy.”

“It was simple enough to mask Thorin’s sensor data with M’ret’s,” Fíli told her.  “It was even sweeter to add Ms. K’gar’s readings to the runabout’s to entice _you_.”

Sela then turned to Josh, whose jovial face began to darken.  “Seems to me that you can’t resist taking on Commander K’gar,” He said.  “I think I speak for the other Captain Reid when I say we’re a little tired of your fixation upon her.”  With that, he grabbed her with his still-glowing hands and picked her up off the ground.  If her abilities were working at the time, they didn’t seem to be effective against Josh’s augmented powers.  “And I think it’s _past_ time you picked on someone your own size.”

“The impudence!” she hissed.

“I’d like to think of it as…initiative,” Josh said with a smile, and released her.  “ _Mediterranean_ , I think it’s time we let the Commander get back across the Neutral Zone.”

“ _Past_ time,” Captain Adam Reid’s voice came through on the comm.  

With that, Sela disappeared in a Starfleet transporter beam, still glaring at Josh.

 

“The Romulan Scout’s recloaked,” Bruffi reported from the cockpit.  “Looks like she’s shoved off.”

“She was right,” a voice from the back cabin called out.  

It was Ori.  

“It _was_ a risk to use Thorin as a decoy to get your Romulan to safety.”

“It was a _calculated_ risk,” Josh countered.  “And I had all of the angles covered, including a very effective transporter signal scrambling—thank you for that, Mr. Ori.”

Ori bowed.  “Well, if there’s no objection, we should get him back to Arda.”

“Erebor?” Fíli asked.

“Eventually, but it’s been decided that he will be revived…elsewhere,” Ori replied.

Josh smiled.  “What a coincidence.” 

 

“Course for Arda laid in,” Bruffi piped up from the cockpit.  

“Thank you, Ensign, we’ll take it from here,” Josh replied.  

Bruffi got up out of the copilot seat and moved to the transporter pad.  “ _Mediterranean_ , one to transfer,” he said, and beamed away.

“Rivendell?” Ford piped up. He’d also been stowed in the back cabin. “Does this mean I’ll have a chance to meet Elrond?”

“Don’t geek out on me, now, Doc,” Josh said, and smiled.  

 

“I’ll get you where you need to go.”


End file.
